Ozersay’s statements reveal the Turkish Cypriot side’s aims

Statement of Stephanos Stephanou, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL 

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 9th April 2014, Nicosia

 

Yesterday’s statements made by the negotiator of the Turkish Cypriot side Mr. Ozersay highlighted the essence of the delaying policy pursued by the Turkish Cypriot side on the Cyprus problem. The Turkish Cypriot side is aiming to strike two birds with one stone:

Firstly, it is trying to disengage itself from the significant convergences that were achieved between Christofias-Talat because these convergences come into conflict with their partitionist positions. Besides, this is what it tried unsuccessfully to do during the years 2010 -2012 of the Christofias administration and we did not allow this goal to be achieved, as a result of which the Turkish Cypriot side withdrew from the talks.

Secondly, the Turkish Cypriot side is trying to shift the responsibilities for a possible deadlock on to the Greek Cypriot side, misleadingly proclaiming that it supposedly wants to continue the talks from where we had left off and that it is the Greek Cypriot side that is rejecting the Christofias-Talat convergences.

The President of the Republic must reflect on how we tackle this policy of the Turkish Cypriot side because, as has been proven many times in the past, refutations and condemnations alone are not enough. Preventive and correct action are required in order to prevent negative developments, especially now that we are nearing the end of the procedure of ascertaining each side’s positions and soon the question will be put as to how the negotiations will proceed.

The methodology followed so far has demonstrated that it leads to a widening of the gap in the positions of the two sides. It has now become evident that the procedure should have moved forward from the point that the Turkish Cypriot side had discontinued it in March 2012, as envisaged actually in the Joint Communique agreed by the President of the Republic with Mr Eroglu, the Turkish Cypriot leader. This is what the President of the Republic must call for.

By doing so, the significant Christofias-Talat convergences that were achieved will be safeguarded and no room will be allowed for the Turkish side to put forth its partitionist positions on the negotiating table and to bring the negotiations to a deadlock. Besides, it has been proven in the document recording the Christofias-Talat convergences that all the talk about supposedly “generous concessions” by Christofias is completely groundless.

The developments so far contain several dangers: Whether we will engage in an endless and fruitless process and at some stage responsibilities will be apportioned – and there is a great danger of the blame being apportioned on the Greek Cypriot side too – or, whether an attempt will be made to impose a solution by external forces.

We need to prevent these dangers.