Avoid confrontation, US tells Cyprus parties
Turkey and Greek Cyprus must avoid any provocations that endanger the region’s fragile balance amid the latter’s move to conduct energy exploration, Washington has said ahead of the U.N. secretary-general’s decision on the future of Cypriot reunification talks.
Possible provocations include issuing more oil exploration and drilling licenses on Greek Cyprus’ part, which would deepen the country’s ties with Israel, and statements about the possible annexation of Turkish Cyprus by Turkey or a push for Turkish Cypriot independence on Turkey’s part. The message was delivered to both sides during recent political talks by senior U.S. officials, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned. The Cyprus issue was on the agenda when the U.S. and Turkish foreign ministers met April 1 in Istanbul.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to announce his conclusion on the long-running negotiations between Turkish and Greek Cyprus, and there is little hope that he will invite the parties to attend an international conference where a settlement would be imposed by the world community. Greek Cyprus will assume the term presidency of the European Union on July 1; Turkey has already announced that it will suspend its relations with the EU presidency during the second half of 2012 if there is no solution beforehand. Ankara’s position was backed by the Turkish Cypriot government, which declared that it would not continue talks if Greek Cyprus assumes the EU presidency unilaterally. Read the rest of this entry »
Water pipeline ‘vital’ for Turkish Cypriots
Turkish officials arrive in Northern Cyprus for the ground-breaking ceremony at the Geçitköy damn where water from Turkey will be carried to the island. Read the rest of this entry »
A game of chess
by Yusuf Kanli/Hurriyet
No, I am not writing about the “game of chess” in the spectacular poem “Wasteland” by Thomas Stearns Elliot. At issue is the game of chess continuing between the two sides on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, with the U.N. playing the role of facilitator, and unwilling to play the role of the referee.
In the latest episode of the game, the Turkish Cypriot side walked the extra mile it has been under pressure to do for the past many weeks. President Derviş Eroğlu wrote to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that organized an international conference to discuss the pending aspects of the Cyprus problem and said the Turkish Cypriot side would accept as “basis for talks” two non-papers presented by U.N. experts to the sides. One of those so-called “food for thought” papers was on the governance issues and the other was related to property matters.
Eroğlu confirmed in remarks to the media Thursday, after the last meeting of the Cypriot leaders before the secretary-general’s special envoy Alexander Downer writes his report to the secretary-general on the progress in the talks, that he had written the letter to Ban. He also implied that reports that he wrote to the secretary-general that he would accept the Greek Cypriot side’s demand for cross-voting, with no strings attached, should Ban call for a multilateral conference, are true. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the Annan Plan work this time?
Only eight years ago, when one was talking about the Annan Plan, it was surely about former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s detailed blueprint aiming to unite the divided island of Cyprus and establishing a new partnership between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
The significance of Annan’s well-crafted plan did even not erode though it became null and void as a result of Greek Cypriots’ rejection in a referendum on April 24, 2004. Kofi Annan became the sole international mediator who could succeed in bringing two communities to vote for a unification plan, so to say, in the form of self-determination, for the first time in the history of Cyprus.
The seasoned diplomat now appears with another peace plan named after him. Tasked by the United Nations Security Council as the joint envoy of the U.N. and Arab League, Kofi Annan is now touring the region and capitals of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to get support for his six-point proposals to end the violence in Syria and to launch a new political process to form a new government in this ravaged country.
His meticulous work bore fruit yesterday as Damascus announced it accepted the Annan Plan. The success of his plan can only be proven if it would fully and unconditionally be implemented by Damascus. Many heavyweights already welcomed the development with Russia depicting the Annan Plan “as the last chance before a civil war.” Read the rest of this entry »
UN SG’s Special Envoy for Cyprus Downer Briefs UN Security Council
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy for Cyprus Alexander Downer briefed the UN Security Council via video conference on Thursday and presented information on Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on Cyprus. Read the rest of this entry »
Cyprus uncertainty persists
Uncertainty continues regarding the fate of Cyprus peacemaking after the July 1 takeover of the European Union term presidency by Greek Cyprus.
The position of the Turkish side is rather clear. Both Turkish Cypriots and Ankara are stressing that if there is no settlement on the island by July 1 and the EU term presidency is not assumed by a federal Cyprus governed by Greek and Turkish Cypriot partners for the six-month period, then Ankara will not engage in any way with the term presidency. Turkish Cypriots will no longer sit at talks, begging Greek Cypriots for a settlement, and will move on to Plan B.
Ankara and Turkish Cyprus expect the United Nations secretary general to either take the steps that will carry Cyprus peacemaking to a settlement-oriented multilateral conference, or declare in all clarity that the goodwill mission that has been continuing since 1968 simply can not succeed. Read the rest of this entry »
We Will Ignore Greek Cypriot Administration as EU President
Turkey’s EU Minister Egemen Bagis said that Turkey would ignore Greek Cypriot administration as EU president.
We will not take it as interlocutor as the rotating president of the EU this year, added Bagis who delivered a speech at London School of Economics on Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkey protests Greek Cypriots’ international tender for off-shore hydrocarbon exploration
Turkish Foreign Ministry protested on Wednesday the Greek Cypriot administration’s new international tender for off-shore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation within its so-called economic exclusive zone.
A ministry statement said, “we have learnt from an announcement published in the EU Official Journal dated 11 February 2012 that the Greek Cypriot administration (GCA) has called for a new international tender for off-shore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation within its so-called economic exclusive zone.”
A Commemoration Ceremony for Rauf Denktas Held in New York
A commemoration ceremony was held on Friday at Turkish House in New York for the founding President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Rauf Denktas.
A documentary film about the life of Denktas was screened in the commemoration hosted by the Turkish consulate general in New York.
Consul General Levent Bilgen said that Denktas would always be remembered with his great efforts to preserve Turkish Cypriot presence.
Tired of Cyprus
The first crisis at the Greentree Cyprus trilateral summitry erupted when at the end of the talks on the first day a top U.N. official described the Cypriot participants as “Greek Cypriot” and “Turkish Cypriot” leaders and issued a warning that as “Greek Cypriot EU term presidency” will commence on July 1, there ought to be a resolution by that date. The uproar was from the Greek Cypriot side. They immediately started complaining that they were “downgraded” to the level of the Turkish Cypriot “community.”
That was indeed the summary behind the failure of the Cyprus peace efforts since the 1968 start of the “intercommunal talks” between the two peoples of the island to forge a new partnership that would replace the 1960 partnership state. That partnership state fell victim in December 1963, just three years after it was established in 1960, to the Greek Cypriot greed of not sharing governance with Turkish Cypriot partners, or annexing the island to “Motherland Greece” or at least converting Cyprus into a “Hellenic Republic.” Read the rest of this entry »