By Elias Hazou
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide is back on the island, where he is scheduled to meet separately with the chief negotiators of the two communities.
The Norwegian diplomat, who arrived here on Tuesday, will on Wednesday hold separate meetings with Andreas Mavroyiannis and Ergun Olgun. He will leave the same day.
On Tuesday evening Eide is to host the annual UN Good Offices Mission in Cyprus reception.
Reports say that Eide’s visit will be mostly routine, with the UN official spending most of his time in discussions with the UN team in Cyprus.
The purpose of the visit is to take stock of the current situation in the Cyprus peace process, already faltering when President Nicos Anastasiades walked out of the talks two months ago.
Anastasiades was reacting to Turkey’s move to dispatch a seismic survey vessel to conduct exploration within the Republic’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on behalf of the Turkish Cypriots.
During his last visit to Cyprus at the end of November, when he saw the leaders of both communities, Eide failed to get the talks process back on track.
The UN official got the cold shoulder from both communities, which rejected his bridging proposal for getting the talks restarted.
His proposal involved setting up a panel of experts from the two sides to discuss such issues as management of hydrocarbons and pollution, after a settlement. The Greek Cypriots rejected it outright, the Turkish Cypriot side said it did not go far enough.
An idea floated by Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to visit the island in a bid to help reboot peace negotiations between the communities has been roundly rebuffed by the Greek Cypriot political leadership, after Cavusoglu proposed to visit both parts of the island.
In comments on Tuesday in Turkey, Cavusoglu said Ankara wanted negotiations to resume, provided that the rights of Turkish Cypriots on the island’s natural resources – hydrocarbons – are guaranteed.
“During our meeting with [Greek foreign minister Evangelos] Venizelos, we said we would take the necessary steps, on condition that Turkish Cypriots’ rights are placed under guarantee and negotiations will continue.
“We hope these efforts will yield results,” he added.
Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu has meanwhile made public a letter he addressed to the UN Secretary-General, in which he accused President Anastasiades of abandoning the talks because the talks were about to enter the “give-and-take” phase.
The activities of the Turkish vessel Barbaros were only a pretext for Anastasiades to walk out, Eroglu claimed.
Anastasiades himself will not be in a position to resume his official duties anytime soon, as he is convalescing from heart surgery. He is due back to the island next week.
On Tuesday the President received at the New York hotel he is staying Victoria Nuland, the US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
On Wednesday Anastasiades will see UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
