By Jean Christou
Though political parties were on Tuesday expecting President Nicos Anastasiades to set out his ‘red lines’ on the Cyprus talks during his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, he limited himself to saying that Turkey should turn its rhetoric into action, and that a reunified Cyprus did not need guarantors.
Anastasiades spoke of a settlement that would lead to the evolution of the Republic of Cyprus to a federal state, in a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, a single sovereignty, a single international legal personality and a single citizenship.
It would be a state that would continue to be a member of the UN, the EU, and numerous other international organisations and whose sovereignty, territorial integrity and constitutional order “will not be constrained by anachronistic systems of guarantees by third countries and the presence of foreign troops on the island”, he said.
The settlement, Anastasiades said would have to be in full conformity with the values and principles of both the Charter of the United Nations and the EU acquis, the High Level Agreements between the leaders of the two communities of 1977, and 1979, as well as the Joint Declaration of February 11, 2014.
He also touched on the fact that, though appreciated, a plethora of UN Resolutions and UN Security Council decisions on Cyprus condemning the unacceptable status quo, “unfortunately have yet to be implemented”.
Anastasiades said he was happy to inform the General Assembly that during the latest negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci – with whom he shares the same vision – progress had been achieved on a number of issues on almost all chapters but on other substantive issues there were significant differences that needed to be resolved.
“Differences that, in order to be resolved, would also require Turkey’s active and determined contribution, considering that its occupation forces still remain in the northern part of our country,” he said.
“I do hope that rhetoric assurances of Turkey’s desire to reaching a settlement will be at last tested in practice, through the adoption of concrete steps that will positively underpin the negotiating process and correspond to the climate of hope prevailing in the island.”
Anastasiades said he wanted to see a settlement that would leave neither winners nor losers, take into account the sensitivities and concerns of both communities, allow Cyprus to utilise its full potential by removing all the political barriers that prevent the full exploitation of its unique geographical position, transform Cyprus into a shining example of the ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic cooperation between Christian and Muslim communities, and see it become a model-country of reliability, stability and security “in what is now a very turbulent and volatile region, characterised by protracted conflicts and instability”.
“I strongly believe that reaching a solution on the Cyprus problem can become a paradigm of how diplomacy and the adoption of a reconciliatory stance can contribute to the resolution of even the most difficult international issues, prevailing over mistrust,” said Anastasiades.
He added that the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean had the potential to create synergies and a grid of alliances for broader cooperation between hydrocarbon-producing and hydrocarbon-consuming countries of that area and beyond.
“I am certain that you share the view that the settlement of the Cyprus problem will create a win-win situation not only for its people, but also for the region, the interested parties and the international community at large,” he told the General Assembly.
