President Nicos Anastasiades has addressed a letter to UN Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres informing him that he will be attending the Geneva summit on Cyprus in a dual capacity, both as leader of the Greek Cypriot community and as the representative – as head of state – of the Republic.
The president’s move emerged during Thursday’s session of the National Council, with Diko chief Nicolas Papadopoulos apparently spilling the beans in impromptu comments to the press.
During the session, Anastasiades informed party leaders of the steps he has taken to ensure the presence and also participation of the Republic at the Geneva conference – a topic that has consumed the domestic front over the past weeks.
Speaking to reporters, acting government spokesman Viktoras Papadopoulos said the president has secured legal opinions from international law experts arguing that because the Republic was a party to the Treaty of Guarantees it must therefore be present during any discussion of the security and guarantees status for the island.
The president is relying in particular on a legal opinion supplied by Alain Pellet, a French expert in international law and a member and former president of the United Nations International Law Commission.
Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will be continuing the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, Switzerland where between January 9 and 11 the two sides will discuss the remaining issues of the Cyprus problem and present maps concerning territorial adjustments. On January 12, a conference on Cyprus will be convened with the participation of the guarantor powers as well as other relevant parties as needed.
The UN chief was to invite the EU and inform the 15 members of the UN Security Council that they could attend if they wished but they will not be participants in the negotiations.
Also coming out of the National Council was the news that accompanying the president at the Geneva talks will be ruling Disy, Akel, Diko and the Citizens Alliance. Socialists Edek, Solidarity and the Greens were set to decide later in the day whether they would be traveling to Switzerland.
Nationalists Elam said they were out.
Unsurprisingly, Anastasiades’ move in sending the missive to the UNSG drew censure from parties hawkish on the Cyprus problem.
“The president has invited himself [to Geneva],” was the sarcastic remark from Diko’s Nicolas Papadopoulos, who indirectly revealed the letter sent to the UN chief.
Anastasiades’ letter, he opined, was merely legal gymnastics, an attempt to fix a mistake after the fact.
The fact the president felt the need to dispatch the letter indicated that Anastasiades had, after all, initially agreed that the Republic would not be represented at the Geneva conference, per the December 1 agreement between the leaders of the communities.
Papadopoulos questioned the legal opinions delivered to the president assuring him that the presence of the Republic at the summit was a legally airtight argument.
In a similar vein, Giorgos Lillikas, head of the Citizens Alliance, stressed his “categorical disagreement” with the format at the Geneva conference.
“We shall be going to Geneva with our reservations and disagreements, but also with the good will to submit our proposals [there],” he noted.
Solidarity’s Eleni Theocharous said she was bracing for an adverse outcome:
“I still believe that should there be an agreement in Geneva, it will be the worst possible and will not safeguard the interests of the Cypriot people.”
A statement shortly later from Solidarity noted it had been decided that Theocharous and party MP Michalis Giorgallas would be traveling to Geneva.
But, the statement added, “in no way shall we accept co-responsibility for the erroneous course plotted.”
As expected, ruling Disy lent Anastasiades their full backing.
Party leader Averof Neophytou said he was confident the president had laid the groundwork for the Republic to be represented at the Geneva talks.
Asked whether members of the UN Security Council will likewise attend the summit, he said he hoped they would, despite the Turkish side’s opposition to this.
For his part, Akel chief Andros Kyprianou said his party agreed with the president’s maneuvering ahead of the conference.
According to Kyprianou, members of the National Council would be playing an active role in Geneva, “discussing and formulating opinions on specific issues.”
Noting that the Cyprus issue is entering a critical stage, Kyprianou appealed for unity on the domestic front, urging dissenters to refrain from airing in public their disagreements.
Meanwhile Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci told reporters in the north that Anastasiades’ “rhetoric that he will represent not only the Greek Cypriot community but also the Republic of Cyprus will not change the facts.”
Akıncı said that the EU representative will not be a part of the negotiating table in Geneva and that he/she will be invited to the negotiation room by the UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor Espen Barth Eide and answer questions if the need arises.
He added that if a “mutually satisfactory result” is achieved on property, rotating presidency, effective participation of the Turkish Cypriots in decision making, and the territory and security chapters, this would be tantamount to considerable success.
Should a framework agreement be reached in Geneva, the two sides would need two to three months to hammer out all pending details, followed by a few more months for the people to familiarise themselves with the solution plan.
Holding a referendum by mid-2017 was plausible, Akinci said.
