The issues that remain to be solved in the Cyprus talks are important, however significant progress has been achieved even on major issues still open, but the prevailing tone is different, the UN secretary-general’s special advisor on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide stressed on Tuesday.
Eide was speaking in Athens after meeting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He said the big issues of security and guarantees remain open, which was why he was in Athens, and recently in Ankara.
He said he did not want to create any illusions that an agreement on these issues was close but added that the tone prevailing in negotiations on them is very different from what was previously assumed. The two sides have their positions but were also willing to listen and discuss.
The “key”, he said, is that both communities need to understand why they have been in a situation where one is afraid of the other. And each side is trying to alleviate the fear by taking precautions against another. While one side feels it needs the presence of the Turkish troops, the other feels that the presence of Turkish troops is the biggest security problem.
“We have to see how we arrived at this point and if there are ways to come up with common security solutions with which everyone will be safe together, through cooperation,” Eide said.
He added that this may sound distant, but has happened in other countries, even in countries that lived in civil war. And yet they got over it and people then wondered why there was the original conflict. So this is what we look forward to, he said.
Regarding the guarantor powers, Eide said it is useful that the guarantor powers do not interfere in issues that are not linked.
Of course, they must be part of the negotiations because there are three international treaties that have been signed with Cyprus and to do something in this field, one needs their help.
Eide reiterated his statement that the negotiations were never so advanced in any other phase of negotiations between the Cypriots.
This change, in his opinion, brought about by a combination of two things. First is the understanding between the two sides, created by frequent meetings together. The Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, he noted, do not necessarily agree on everything, but have developed a better understanding as to why each expresses a particular viewpoint.
The second factor, in his opinion, is that both leaders and both negotiating teams take into account the international environment and realise the momentum that exists and is good, but not eternal. History will judge very strictly if this opportunity is missed, he said.
If the attempt fails for something very important, he said, that’s okay. But if it fails for something small that relates to practical issues, it is not good.
