THE LONG-AWAITED meeting of the two leaders and the UN Secretary-General takes place in Geneva tomorrow in an atmosphere of low expectations fuelled by relentless negativity. For weeks now the two sides have been engaging in the traditional blame-game, making it clear their primary concern was avoiding taking any responsibility for the talks’ failure rather than reaching a deal.
Earlier in the week, Dervis Eroglu accused Demetris Christofias of dragging his feet at the talks and not caring if the talks went on for another 50 years. He, by contrast, wanted Ban Ki-moon to set a deadline for the end of the procedure because the talks could not be allowed to drag on without result. Speaking during his official visit to the Ukraine, Christofias said that the Greek Cypriot side was very constructive at the talks “but it had reached its limits, which it cannot exceed”. The Turkish side had to show the necessary flexibility for there to be progress, he said.
By all accounts, several months of weekly meetings between Christofias and Eroglu have produced no results, despite the assurances they had given to Ban, about showing a sense of urgency, when they last met in Geneva. We doubt Ban will try to establish whether Turkish intransigence or Greek Cypriot filibustering is to blame for the lack of progress, but he needs to be much more forceful tomorrow if the procedure is to be saved from a slow death.
But it is very difficult to see how he might breathe life into a process that is lacking any urgency and has been heading nowhere for months. The only way to move things forward is by setting a time-frame, the UN submitting convergence proposals on thorny issues and bringing Greece, Turkey and the EU into the talks’ procedure. But all these options have been rejected by Christofias, who repeated his opposition to artificial time-frames and arbitration during the Ukraine visit.
This stance may have the support of the majority of the political parties, but it will not win the blame-game. On the contrary, it is a gift to Turkey, as it supports her oft-repeated claim that the Greek Cypriot side is not interested in a deal and wants the talks to drag on indefinitely. Christofias can blame Turkish intransigence, but the outside world will judge him on his actions; opposing time-frames, UN mediation and a broader international meeting does not indicate a serious commitment toward reaching a deal.
He needs to bear this in mind tomorrow, if he does not want to be seen as the side preventing progress in the talks, because this time, Ban could set a time-frame – not for a deal, but for an end to UN involvement in the talks.
