Cyprus-Forum.com

[DT.]

This is a really significant speech. A conclusive summary of what has passed, and a real hope for the future.

The President's Humanitarian sympathies shine through, but he is by no means a doormat. He has poured scorn on Turkey's intransigence without giving her any credence as being anything more than an invader, with troops and colonising settlers.

He has put a whole Cyprus with "single citizenship" first and foremost.

That is his take home message in my opinion ..... single citizenship, which I take to mean one man, one vote and no special treatment for a "community"!

Christofias pledge on settlement

Christofias pledges to work for settlement

President addresses UN General Assembly for first time

President Christofias has reassured the world community of his "firm and deep-rooted" political will to work relentlessly for a settlement of the long running Cyprus problem.

In his first address to the UN General Assembly in New York as President of the Cyprus Republic, Christofias also sent three other important messages.

*A solution must be within the framework set out in UN Security Council resolutions, envisaging a bizonal, bicommunal federation with a single sovereignty.

*Turkey should contribute in a positive way to the peace process, since it keeps more than 40,000 troops and tens of thousands of settlers in Cyprus.

*Cypriots must be in charge of the process. The UN could help but should not try to impose a solution.

"Recent experience has shown that any attempt to impose, even to import, non-Cypriot inspired and improvised models will meet with rejection by the Cypriot people", he said, in an apparent reference to the Annan Plan, which was rejected by Greek Cypriots in the 2004 referendum.

The good offices mission of the UN Secretary-General meant negotiations in which the Cypriots themselves were the principal players, he stressed.

Mediation

"The Cypriots themselves must build the state they envision for their society. The role of the Secretary-General and of the international community is to assist and to support. Good offices is not arbitration. It is not mediation".

Christofias, as Greek Cypriot leader, began a new round of negotiations earlier this month with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Mehmet Ali Talat. They are to hold their next meeting on October 10 to continue discussion on the powers and functions of the proposed federal government. Other difficult issues lie ahead, ranging from property rights to the pullout of Turkish troops and settlers.

But Christofias was quick to point out that the Security Council resolutions on Cyprus should form the guideline of any settlement since they provide the "legal and political framework " within which the talks should move.

This framework, he reminded, prescribes a bizonal, bicommunal federation with single international personality, single indivisible sovereignty and single citizenship.

As defined by the Security Council, the principle of political equality meant " effective participation" of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in all organs of the federal state,

Compromise

Bizonal, bicommunal federation has been the only mutually agreed basis dating back to 1977 and reaffirmed as recently as a few weeks ago, he noted.

"It represents a compromise and indeed the only possible compromise".

Reuters news agency points out that the Cyprus stalemate is complicating Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The European Commission has partially suspended Turkey’s membership talks with the bloc with a review slated for mid-2009.

Referring to the new round of peace talks President Christofias told the Assembly:

"On September 3, a new intensive effort started with the aim of overcoming the impasses of the past and achieving progress that would lead to the reunification of Cyprus under mutually agreed terms and to the withdrawal of foreign troops after 34 years of division and foreign occupation. For this effort to succeed what is needed is political will on the part of the Cypriots, but also the positive engagement of other important players which for historical reasons have been part of the problem and need to become part of the solution.

Co-existence

“For my part, I want to assure you from this podium that my political will to do what is necessary to solve the problem is firm and deep-rooted. My origins are in the popular movement of Cyprus which prides itself of a long history of struggles and indeed sacrifices in defence of friendship, cooperation and peaceful coexistence between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. On the other hand, I am one of those Cypriots that were deeply and directly affected by the foreign military invasion of 1974, because I myself and my family are internally displaced persons, refugees in our own country.

“The role of the Cypriots is to agree on what they want. This we must try to achieve with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mehmet Ali Talat. And I believe that we could achieve it.

“But this is not enough for achieving a solution. Turkey should contribute to the process in a positive way. Turkey still maintains over 40,000 troops and tens of thousands of settlers in Cyprus and can, without doubt, determine the outcome of the issues under discussion. We believe that the solution should benefit everybody and will benefit everybody.

“It would allow the Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to live together and work together in an independent prosperous country, within the family of the European Union, without the presence of foreign armies and illegal colonists, under conditions of security and respect for their identity and their rights."

SPELLING IT OUT: President Christofias addressing the UN General Assembly.

Sadly I don't think thats what he;s reffering to Oracle. Single citizenship is just to calm the GC's down that the north statelet will not have its own separate citizenship as the TC's have been requesting. i.e a turkish cypriot state citizenship and a greek cypriot citizenship.

[denizaksulu]

This sentence from Pres X's speech above caught my eye.

"As defined by the Security Council, the principle of political equality meant " effective participation" of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in all organs of the federal state."

"effective participation" , wonder what this could mean?

They must do their share of the cleaning .....

That expression, " effective participation", will be the new stumbling block of these negotiations. Unless the GC side mean what they say about 'meaningful negotiations', we are in deep trouble.

"Effective participation", was the root cause of the events of 1963..

Lets hope that they sort this one out.


Hi Oracle, are you blanking me again. We ought to be more cosy with each other under the circumstances.

[zan]

This sentence from Pres X's speech above caught my eye.

"As defined by the Security Council, the principle of political equality meant " effective participation" of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in all organs of the federal state."

"effective participation" , wonder what this could mean?

They must do their share of the cleaning .....

That expression, " effective participation", will be the new stumbling block of these negotiations. Unless the GC side mean what they say about 'meaningful negotiations', we are in deep trouble.

"Effective participation", was the root cause of the events of 1963..

Lets hope that they sort this one out.


Hi Oracle, are you blanking me again. We ought to be more cosy with each other under the circumstances.

The root cause was sabotage mate...The sooner you stop the crap the sooner we can actually start some sort of reconciliation....

[zan]

*Cypriots must be in charge of the process. The UN could help but should not try to impose a solution.

"Recent experience has shown that any attempt to impose, even to import, non-Cypriot inspired and improvised models will meet with rejection by the Cypriot people", he said, in an apparent reference to the Annan Plan, which was rejected by Greek Cypriots in the 2004 referendum.

Could this also mean....We have no intention of seeing this thing through???

[Nikitas]

I think that the situation is simple.

A- There must be equality between the negotiating parties, this is a basic principle.

B- The two component states are politically equal and share equally in the Federal government. We do not know yet what the Federal government will handle and how far it will be able to override the local governments in its spheres of competence.

C- Each component state handles its own affairs in areas not deemed to be ceded to the Federal government.

D- Nationality is single and there cannot be any indication on IDs and passports of race or religion, this is EU law and will not change no matter what. SO there will be a way round it ie, ID cards issued by States, Passports by Federal government.

The major concern is elsewhere- in the day to day execution of EU obligations. In case either one of the two component states fails in its EU obligations is the whole of Cyprus punished with fines and witholding of funding? If that is the case then one state can sabotage the other by simply not implementing EU projects and programmes. Some way around this must be found. Remember that in the event of a solution and subsequent demilitarisation of the island the south will direct defence funds to development and be able to surge ahead at a very fast pace. The north will not be able to invoke the old 70-30 nonsense in this "healthy competition" (Soyer's terminology).

One man one vote is a foregone conclusion and it is confusing to see the issue brought up on the forum. As for the special status of the TCs that is gone forever, since there will be political equality of the two component states in the federation, and equality makes the special status obsolete. The allocation of resources etc is another story and has no relation to the voting power.

[CopperLine]

I think that the situation is simple.

A- There must be equality between the negotiating parties, this is a basic principle.

B- The two component states are politically equal and share equally in the Federal government. We do not know yet what the Federal government will handle and how far it will be able to override the local governments in its spheres of competence.

C- Each component state handles its own affairs in areas not deemed to be ceded to the Federal government.

D- Nationality is single and there cannot be any indication on IDs and passports of race or religion, this is EU law and will not change no matter what. SO there will be a way round it ie, ID cards issued by States, Passports by Federal government.

The major concern is elsewhere- in the day to day execution of EU obligations. In case either one of the two component states fails in its EU obligations is the whole of Cyprus punished with fines and witholding of funding? If that is the case then one state can sabotage the other by simply not implementing EU projects and programmes. Some way around this must be found. Remember that in the event of a solution and subsequent demilitarisation of the island the south will direct defence funds to development and be able to surge ahead at a very fast pace. The north will not be able to invoke the old 70-30 nonsense in this "healthy competition" (Soyer's terminology).

One man one vote is a foregone conclusion and it is confusing to see the issue brought up on the forum. As for the special status of the TCs that is gone forever, since there will be political equality of the two component states in the federation, and equality makes the special status obsolete. The allocation of resources etc is another story and has no relation to the voting power.

All that looks pretty good to me. If something like this were the settlement then, Nikitas' concerns about EU penalties etc, should be applied to the appropriate level of authority eg, if environmental issues were delegated to constituent states, then it is constituent states that should be penalised for breaches (just as it would be constituent states who would receive funds for environmental matters).

[But the real sticking issues are, again, going to be (i) citizenship - who qualifies; (ii) territorial demarcation of constituent states; and (iii) property restoration/compensation].

[Nikitas]

Copperline,

In short, the real problems are those manufactured by ill conceived Turkish policy, none were Cypriot made. But reality is that Cypriots will have to deal with this mess.

Ideally the territorial demarcation should be such that there will be the minimum property settlement left to settle. Christofias did hint about this in an interview last year but did not go into detail.

The remaining property issue is not going to be easy but then it is not going to be as hard as some think. Few people will want to change their residence, even if they do decide to retain ownership in the "other" state.

Citizenship is an easy matter. Those who married Cypriots are automatically citizens. Those who were born in Cyprus can stay with residence permits if they do not want to accept compensation and leave.

The EU relationship is likely to be a sticking point because the EU will not want to look behind the "federal veil" and deal with each component state separately. THe EU buraucracy is big on terminology like "subsidiarity" etc but in practice they cannot let go of their buraucratic instincts.

[Kikapu]

C- Each component state handles its own affairs in areas not deemed to be ceded to the Federal government.

Surely, it will be the Federal Government that will be the representative arm of the component states in the EU, UN and any foreign countries via its embassies. If one of the component states falls behind the EU requirement, it will not be that state that will be punished by the EU, but the Federal Government. Then it will be the responsibility of the Federal Government to see to it, that the each component states follow the rules, or else, the Federal Government will impose fines on the component states themselves. The Federal Government will control all the borders for Cyprus, as well as who becomes a citizen and who does not, and not decided by each component states. We are not entering a Confederation, much to the disappointment of the "trnc" and Turkey.

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,

You can see how sensitive an issue it will be, when one of the two component states is unable or unwilling to implement EU directives, plans etc. If the Federal government steps in and hands out fines etc it will be easy to accuse it of partiality or outright sabotage. This is a challenge both for the Federal system and the EU Commission.

Seeing how areas of Greece that refuse mundane things, like closing rubbish tips, drag the whole country down and attract fines, worried me about the day to day workings of BBF in the EU. I wish this part of the committees' work had been made public so we can all see what is being planned.

[turkkan]

from todays cyprus-mail coffeeshop!


In New York, they love him. They really, really love him

Tales from the coffeeshop

THOSE of us who thought that we would stop living in the sixties after the Ethnarch’s departure from the palazzo have been proved wrong. Thanks to our comrade presidente we have returned there, to the era when the Cyprus head of state would visit the UN and, according to the official media, always win over the world’s leaders with his intelligence and charisma.We are back in the period when Archbishop Makarios drew the attention of the world as soon as he took the podium at the UN General Assembly and talked about the injustice done to our country. Not since that golden age of Makarios had any of our presidentes enjoyed such a mega-successful week at the UN; not even Spy.

The humble boy from Dikomo showed what he was made of, not only scoring diplomatic triumphs and moral victories during his contacts, but also putting the jumped-up Turkish president Abdullah Gul in his place, with his powerful speech to the General Assembly, by the end of which many of the ambassadors were still awake.

The shifty Gul also got a personal talking to by the comrade when they bumped into each other in the UN building (or as the official media said, “met on the sidelines of the General Assembly”, because it sounds better). He was told to cut out the platitudes and take some action that would help the two sides arrive at an agreement, RIK informed us yesterday morning, in a slightly more formal style.

We now await the release of the RIK documentary about the presidente conquering the UN on DVD. It would sit well alongside that other RIK classic of the political documentary genre, Makarios at the Kremlin, which was never officially released, but can be obtained on low-quality, video-tape on the black market.

THE SIGNS were good from the word go. Last weekend, when our presidente met the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon he announced, immediately afterwards, that not only did they strike a personal rapport, but there was also ‘chemistry’.

“I had a very cordial conversation with the Secretary-General. It appears there is chemistry and this makes me happy,” he announced.

The message was clear – charmer Christofias had won over the poker-faced Ban in 30 minutes – even though the phrase used to emphasise the point was a bit unfortunate. The word ‘chemistry’ is often used by new lovers to describe their sexual compatibility, but in diplomacy it just sounds stupid, even if two statesmen spent their meeting holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes, which certainly did not happen at the Ban-Christofias meeting.

AFTER securing a chemical reaction from Ban, he had a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov (meetings with Russian officials was also a Makarios tactic), who, reportedly, repeated for the zillionth time Moscow’s support for a settlement, based on UN Security Council resolutions. Sadly, there was no chemistry.

The most difficult part of his mission was to respond to all the outrageous views expressed by Gul during his address of the Gen. Ass. Our man addressed the Gen. Ass., the following day, and according to Haravghi, his “honest speech,” not only “convinced” but it also “made an impression”. This was because “the president’s speech was sincere and honourable.”

Another journalist wrote didactically in the paper on Friday: “The Cypriot people must feel proud and, at the same time, re-assured because at this critical time we have at the helm of the state a political leader like Demetris Christofias.”

TASS News Agency also reported that the new Makarios, had a “short encounter with US President George Bush, during a reception which the US president hosted for the heads on national delegations”. This sounds better than reporting that Bush shook Christofias’ hand as he entered the reception room.

The Tass correspondent, quoting diplomatic sources said the president also “had the opportunity to have a brief encounter with Condoleezza Rice”, presumably as they both reached for canape from the same tray. There was no chemistry and no intention by the correspondent to conjure images of doomed romance, by his reference to a “brief encounter”.

The question, diplomats everywhere were asking was which lasted the longest – the brief or the short encounter?

HAVING won over Ban, the Gen Ass, Bush and Condi, the UN reps of the five permanent members of Security Council were a piece of cake for the presidente, bursting with the confidence of a villager welcomed into the salons of the upper classes. He instructed them to take a “collective approach” to the Cyprob and urged them to avoid the mistakes of 2004.

And he convinced them, although there was no chemistry. As Michalis Ignatiou, authoritatively reported from New York, “the filibustering by Ankara and the realisation of the inability of the occupation leader, Talat to negotiate a deal is worrying foreigners who are interested in the Cyprus problem.”

Obviously, the many foreigners who had told Ignatiou they were worried, had been enlightened about the situation by the chemical statesman.