UN to scrap Cyprus negotiations
Cem Barber | FG Online • Sun, Feb 26, 2012
TALKS to broker a deal on the reunification of Cyprus are about to be scrapped with the departure of the United Nations from the island, according to information obtained by a leading columnist in the Turkish controlled sector of the island.
Writing in his daily column in Turkish Cypriot daily "Yeni Duzen" Sami Ozuslu reports that as he and the paper’s editor-in-chief Cenk Mutluyakali have received information from sources “very close to a high ranking UN official”, that the Cyprus negotiations process is about to be scrapped.
According to Ozuslu, the United Nations and mainly UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus Alexander Downer will close down their offices and leave the island.
“…We have heard that General Secretary Ban expresses around his intention never to come again to Cyprus,” Ozuslu writes.
“And the worst of all, we found out that the final countdown for this ‘bad end’ has started and that only five weeks are left.”
It is known that the United Nations - which is sponsoring the talks are said to be increasing frustrated with the process, which has been dragging on since 2008, with little sign of any tangible progress.
Writing on the same issue, Yeni Duzen’s editor-in-chief, Cenk Mutluyakali reports that this source talked to them at length about the talks and expressed the UN’s concerns. Mutluyakali said that the Turkish Cypriots will be apportioned much of the blame for the end of the process.
“- The Turkish Cypriot leadership is continuously drowning in the details. It delays the achievement of progress. The process has come to the point of collapse and the Turkish Cypriot leadership will have important responsibility for this,” he wrote.
Last month the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged a U.N. meeting Cyprus ended with little tangible progress, but added he may call an international conference in late April or early May on a settlement to resolve the division of the island.
The January trilateral summit between Ban Ki-moon and the leaders of divided Cyprus was supposed to have been the high point in the U.N. effort to push the long-bickering foes forward with their sluggish peace talks.
Negotiations between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish-Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu have effectively stalled, and are in jeopardy of collapse.
Last month it was reported that Turkey would push for a two-state solution in Cyprus if the current UN backed peace talks failed.
In January, Turkish Cypriot daily "Haberdar" cited diplomatic sources quoting the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu as saying that the “bi-zonal bi-communal solution model” in Cyprus, will be abandoned in case the negotiations process comes to a deadlock "because of the stance of the Greek Cypriots".
Davutoglu has reportedly noted that if this happens, a solution model based on two independent states will be adopted by the Turkish side instead of a bi-zonal bi-communal solution. — Copyright © Famagusta Gazette 2012
http://famagusta-gazette.com/report-un- ... 612-69.htm
This looks like wishful thinking by VP!
