Excerpts from an interview of the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou on the latest developments surrounding the Cyprus problem
Sunday 2 September 2018, “Fileleftheros” newspaper
“There will be mobility on the Cyprus problem”
– With regards the Cyprus problem, is the time of crisis in September? Do you expect any developments and under what preconditions?
– There will be mobility on the Cyprus problem. That is certain. I say this because the Report of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General Mrs. Lute will be submitted to the UN Secretary-General, and he will meet with the President of the Republic within the framework of the UN General Assembly. He will subsequently meet with the Turkish Cypriot leader Mr. Akinci and it is rumored that a common meeting may also take place.
There will be mobility. But there will be some further development? That will depend on what UN Secretary-General Mr. Guterres will hear from Mrs. Lute, but also on what the two leaders will tell him when he meets them.
The UN Secretary-General was very specific as regards the issue of whether he would undertake a new initiative. He said that in relation to the core issue he wanted us to commit ourselves to continue on the basis of the framework that was accepted at Crans Montana, the convergences achieved so far and the informal document he tried to submit for the implementation of the agreement and of course the relevant decisions of the United Nations and the High-Level agreements.
As far as the procedure is concerned, the Secretary-General told them that we should continue on the way we had begun at Crans Montana. That is to say two tables, with the issue of Security being discussed on one of the tables with a specific composition, and on the other table the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem will be discussed with a different composition.
The third thing the UN Secretary-General said is that the two leaders should convince him that they have the political will to go all the way.
If there is no commitment on the part of the two leaders and if they do not persuade him of their political will to go all the way, then I am very afraid that the UN Secretary-General will not undertake a new initiative. We heard from the President of the Republic the briefing he had during the meeting with Mrs. Lute. I have my views on all that she told the President, but I do not want right now to make any comments in public. We will wait to see what the UN Secretary-General himself will decide and then we can say more.
Do you consider that the crisis in American-Turkish relations and the devaluation of the Turkish lira with all the consequences for the problems the Turkish economy is facing affect whatever efforts are underway for a resumption of the dialogue and how?
– They certainly complicate the situation much more. I would say that it leads us to the conclusion that when there is an opportunity it must be used. And I think there was an opportunity at Crans Montana, either to arrive at a conclusion on the issues of security in a way to our liking or either to expose Turkey. I say this, because Mr. Anastasiades also says in public that everyone else agreed with us. So when you have everyone supporting you, you insist and you either force Turkey to come to your position or you end up exposing yourself. Unfortunately, the Greek Cypriot side did not insist.
The second thing I would like to say is that this negative development may also have one positive development. Turkey is now obliged to try to improve its relationship with other strong players in the international political chessboard. Like Russia, the EU, and others. Within this context, Turkey may attempt to make moves that will improve its position in relation to, for example, the EU. Such a move could be the expression of the political will for a solution to the Cyprus problem. I’m not saying it will happen. I say that it might possibly happen and we must encourage this possibility.
– Can the Turkish Cypriots get free from their dependency on Turkey and how?
– Given the situation as it exists right now, no. The Turkish Cypriot community is fully dependent economically, and especially after the crisis in Turkey, the economic situation in the occupied areas is very bad and the only help they have is from Turkey. Then there is the political dependence that also exists. Erdogan is currently also trying to promote religious dependence too.
If we do not realize that the longer time goes by, things will be getting much harder for us, I am afraid that we will lose the game of the solution of the Cyprus problem. We read press reports about the possible construction of a naval base by Turkey in the occupied areas. You realize that this consolidates partition even more and makes the efforts to reach a solution of the Cyprus problem even more difficult.
