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Don’t rush back to the table
By Jean Christou


Former envoy recommends a reality check before returning to negotiations

BRITAIN’S former Cyprus envoy Lord David Hannay yesterday warned against rushing back into negotiations on the Cyprus issue, saying the two sides were not ready.

He also warned against too much involvement by the international community because in hindsight he said this had been part of the downfall of the fifth version of the Annan plan, which was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a referendum last April.

“I would not favour a rush back to the negotiating table, for one thing the failure of another attempt or speedy arrival at a deadlock would risk being extremely damaging to all concerned and to the overall process of arriving at a settlement,” Hannay told delegates at the three-day closed-doors Wilton Park Conference in Larnaca.

“International support must not be too prominent and it must not be proffered in such a way as to enable Cypriots to assert that they have no part in shaping the outcome. With the benefit of hindsight it clearly was a mistake to switch from the original purpose of the first two iterations of the Annan plan before it was put to referendum on each side.”

Hannay, who was Britain’s Cyprus envoy from 1997 to 2003 said the response the UN Secretary-general needed now was “not the repetition of a mantra about the viability of any settlement but a clear indication of a willingness to negotiate in good faith.”

He also said there was no particular magic about October 3, the date of the opening of EU accession talks with Turkey because he said Turkey had committed itself to “doing what it has to do by that date, extending its customs union agreement with the EU to cover the ten new member states, including Cyprus”.

Hannay also said he would caution against any notion that Turkey’s accession negotiations could or should be regarded as a means of exerting leverage on the Turks or the Turkish Cypriots. He said this would be counterproductive.

“International support for a renewed effort to settle the Cyprus problem can by no means be taken for granted,” Hannay said. “It has often been said, correctly in my view, that the Cyprus problem was never at the top of anyone’s list of matters that needed urgently to be solved.

“Despite protestations to the contrary, it was not even at all times top of most Cypriots’ lists – and that this handicapped the development of the necessary negotiations momentum. The trouble now is that following the rejection of the Annan plan by Greek Cypriots last April it is simply not on most people’s list at all. It would be a mistake to underestimate the bitterness and the sheer negotiating fatigue that that decision provoked.”

However Hannay did say that he did not see any viable alternative to the Annan plan despite suggestions from some quarters that it be binned. He wondered whether Greek Cypriots had specifically rejected Annan 5 or if they would reject any version of the plan. He also said he deplored the way the information campaign for the plan was carried out on the Greek Cypriot side.

“I don’t know, but if there is no other version and no viable alternative, then the choice is between a plan and adjustments, or no settlement at all and I think that is the real choice and I hope nobody on either side would opt for no settlement at all,” he said. “I have seen no viable alternative to the Annan plan. It is the result of negotiations that have gone on for decades…it is, I know, a strongly held belief here that somehow it descended from the skies on a pale blue parachute. It didn’t.”
To suggestions that the Annan plan be binned and some other means of support be mustered, such as the EU, Hannay said that it made even less sense for the EU to become the principle mediator in a dispute between one of its own members and a third country, whether that third country is a candidate or not.

“I don’t think EU can become the mediator. This is not a fruitful road to go down,” he added.
Hannay also advised that the two sides stay away from confidence building measures, other than increasing contacts between Greek and Turkish Cypriot politicians. Hannay said he believed the opening of the checkpoints in April 2003 was one of the best confidence building measures of all, even though it had come about without any negotiations.

“Indeed one could wager that if there had been any attempt made to negotiate the provisions of that opening, it would never have taken place at all,” he said.