WITH THE economy and the drilling for natural gas hogging the headlines, the Cyprus peace talks barely get a mention in the news nowadays. If there is a report on the talks, it is usually buried on the inside pages of the newspapers or in the latter part of the television news. Attempts by some politicians, to spark a Cyprus problem debate, by uttering the familiar, defiant platitudes do not work either, as nobody seems remotely interested.
Even the CyBC appears to be suffering from Cyprus problem apathy. On its Wednesday night television news it broadcast an exclusive interview with the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy Alexander Downer about the talks, but this appeared midway through the show. In the past it would have been the main story, but the ‘problem’ is no longer big news.
Perhaps this was one of the reasons Downer gave the interview to the state broadcaster, to remind people that talks were under way and that next month we would be entering what Ban Ki-moon described as the ‘endgame’ of the procedure. Downer’s comments indicated a certain degree of exasperation, both with lack of urgency at the talks and public apathy towards a solution. Both leaders have blatantly ignored the repeated pleas by Ban to create the climate that would be conducive to a settlement.
In the north, Dervis Eroglu has been talking about Taiwan status being given to the ‘TRNC’, a position fully backed by Turkey’s political leadership. In the Republic, President Christofias and his spokesmen have played down so much, the prospects of convergences being reached in the talks, nobody believes there is the slightest possibility there will be a deal by January. Worse still, nobody seems to want the type of deal that is being negotiated, with all the parties, protesting if the word ‘progress’ is as much as mentioned in relation to the talks.
Downer’s comments on Wednesday were an attempt to remind everyone that the bi-communal, bi-zonal federation was the only way to achieve re-unification and that the demand for a unitary state was completely unrealistic. “I don’t think that frankly there is another model that can be made to work here,” he said, and challenged supporters of the unitary state to consider how the Turkish army would leave Cyprus if there was no settlement. He also warned that there could be trouble over the natural gas reserves, if there was no deal.
Strong words, but Downer failed to provoke a reaction from the political parties, which normally would grab any opportunity to have a dig at the envoy. Is it because they are pre-occupied with our economic woes or have they completely lost interest in a settlement, content with the maintenance of the status quo?
