Cyprus-Forum.com

[halil]

(Reuters) - The UN mediator on Cyprus, seeking to end a four-decade diplomatic deadlock, said Greek and Turkish sides now had strong economic reasons to agree a reunification that could help ease debt problems and speed exploitation of disputed gas fields.

"Both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have economic difficulties," Alexander Downer, special advisor on Cyprus to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said.

"It is a good opportunity to remind people that a solution to the Cyprus problem will be economically very beneficial and it will certainly be well received by the international community," he told Reuters in an interview.

Greek Cypriots representing Cyprus internationally were forced to seek aid from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in June to prop up their banks, badly exposed to debt-crippled Greece.

Turkish Cypriots living north of a buffer zone splitting the island's two main populations are economically and politically isolated, relying on financial handouts from Ankara.

Cyprus was split in a 1974 Turkish military invasion triggered by a brief Greek Cypriot coup instigated by the military then ruling Greece.

The conflict has come into sharper focus with natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek Cypriots reported their first major discovery in December 2011, while Turkey launched an on-shore drill in northern Cyprus in April.

Cyprus, an EU member now holding the rotating presidency of the bloc, has, like every other EU country, veto rights over Turkey's bid to join the EU.

TEMPORARY PEACE

"It's peaceful, but everyone knows this is temporary, and everyone knows there needs to be a solution which is permanent," said Downer, whose office is in a sprawling U.N. compound which was once Nicosia's international airport, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in 1974.

The bullet-riddled shell of a Cyprus Airways aircraft squats on a runway overgrown with weeds, testament to the violence.

"It (reunification) would reduce the sovereign risk of investing in Cyprus, clear up the problems of investing in property, grow GDP and offer capacity to service and pay off debt," Downer said.

"It would be an economic boon to Cyprus just when it needs one. There's gas, but that is years off until that is sold."

Four years ago, the United Nations launched a new round of talks, the latest of many peace efforts. Downer is still cautiously optimistic about cracking a deal and succeeding where dozens before him failed.

"It is hard," said Downer, a former Australian foreign minister. "There have been efforts made for 38 years to solve the Cyprus problem. A lot has been achieved, there are a lot of convergences, there is a basic plan, but the deal hasn't been done."

Greek and Turkish Cypriots agree in principle on reuniting the island as a federation, but differ on how it would work. Differences remain on core issues ranging from how Cyprus is to be co-governed to property claims from thousands of internally displaced people.

ELECTION DELAY

Direct talks between the leaders of the Greek and the Turkish Cypriots have been on hold for several months, partly because of a Greek Cypriot poll in 2013 to elect a new president.

The United Nations has also backed off from plans to call a multilateral conference because of Greek Cypriot objections about the timing.

"The risk of failure and of total collapse was way too high, and it would have been reckless for us to have called a multilateral conference, and that was the advice I gave the secretary-general," Downer said.

Downer said the time between now and the election next February was focused on talks with technocrats between the two sides. "In terms of negotiations on the substantial issues, we will get them under way once a new president has been elected."

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

[B25]

Special Message to the Special Envoy of the UN:

Dear Mr Downer,

You have again exceeded your remit in this process. It is not for you to give direction but to mediate between the 2 sides. The Gas finds are quite well known and they are in the hands of the GCs, the TCS have NO say for as long as they support the occupation regime and continue to hold our properties and country to randsom.

You have proven to be as useful as a chocolate teapot in these farcical talks and have not and will not produce any results.

May I direct you and your Boss Mr Moon to study your own UN Charter, becasue it is very clear to me and everyone else that you know nothing of it. You are trying to appease an invading power, by getting the victims, ie the GCs to yield to Turkeys demands with no respect for Human Rights, law and Order and anything else.

perhaps it is high time the UN bagan beating the drum and DEMAND that Turkey adhere to the UN Resolutions against her. Resolutions they your UN placed upon her and for which you deliberate choose to ignore.

So, please get off your high horse and do your job. Or are we not paying enough, as it is alleged that you have financial interests in Turkey and it would be no surprise why you act the way in which you do.

The RoC is the ONLY legitimate sovereign government of Cyprus, Turkey does not belong here, perhaps a word in Obamas ear might help us rid ot this terrorist country who brutaly invaded us with the blessing of the US and the UK government.

Enough is enough, the people of Cyprus, the legitimate people want this trash off its country and we ask you, the UN to make good your jobs and see to it thet they do.

Oh, and do be so advise that this little shit stirrer by the name of Halil, worjs for the Illegal BRK TV station who pollute our airways with total turkish natinoalistic, facisitic and racial propaganda.
And G'Day to you old sport.

[Viewpoint]

B52 you havent got a clue, its people like you that will guarantee we stay divided, thank you.

[Lordo]

whilst greek cypriots have all the power and only 10% of land to gain the equation cannot be solved. the only way to go forward is to have another war where they have something to loose and then let us see how they feel about status quo. after all how many people did the germans kill and look at them now. perhaps mankind only respect murder.

[Kikapu]

whilst greek cypriots have all the power and only 10% of land to gain the equation cannot be solved. the only way to go forward is to have another war where they have something to loose and then let us see how they feel about status quo. after all how many people did the germans kill and look at them now. perhaps mankind only respect murder.

I see you are still hoping to gain your land in the buffer zone, this time through another war and more land grab by Turkey.

Yes Lordo, lets kill more people so that you can be made whole with your unused land.

Now we know what kind of "mankind" you belong to.

[Lordo]

whilst greek cypriots have all the power and only 10% of land to gain the equation cannot be solved. the only way to go forward is to have another war where they have something to loose and then let us see how they feel about status quo. after all how many people did the germans kill and look at them now. perhaps mankind only respect murder.

I see you are still hoping to gain your land in the buffer zone, this time through another war and more land grab by Turkey.

Yes Lordo, lets kill more people so that you can be made whole with your unused land.

Now we know what kind of "mankind" you belong to.

we need to give our greek cypriot friends a bit of an incentive. perhaps if add limasol to the equation perhaps they will consider a peace agreement. we will leave them aya nappa they can have that one.

[B25]

seems you are counting your chickens before they hatch Yfuck.
this is 2012 not 1570. As our dear friend Milti would say, Plonker!
Where is Milti anyway, I miss that guy.

[Kikapu]

whilst greek cypriots have all the power and only 10% of land to gain the equation cannot be solved. the only way to go forward is to have another war where they have something to loose and then let us see how they feel about status quo. after all how many people did the germans kill and look at them now. perhaps mankind only respect murder.

I see you are still hoping to gain your land in the buffer zone, this time through another war and more land grab by Turkey.

Yes Lordo, lets kill more people so that you can be made whole with your unused land.

Now we know what kind of "mankind" you belong to.

we need to give our greek cypriot friends a bit of an incentive. perhaps if add limasol to the equation perhaps they will consider a peace agreement. we will leave them aya nappa they can have that one.

The other way of looking at it would be of course, that there is no incentive for the GCs to lift a finger to reach an agreement if it means to "gain" 10% of land and lose 25% of the country permanently to Turkey trough the TCs and at the same time, have Turkey rule supreme over the whole island as per the Annan plan.

Surely that's a no brainer, even for you, Lordo.

Maybe if the land giveback was much larger and Turkey washed off her hands on Cyprus all together, then perhaps there would be a settlement. There's always one way to skin a cat, Lordo.

[Lordo]

your mind is always tending towards violence. leave the pussy alone. does not need deskinning she is not muslim.

[Nikitas]

"Dispute" over the oil fields? No! There is a unilateral claim which has been rejected by the international community. The law of the sea convention is clear and bears no dispute on the southern oil fields. This ploy of the unilateral claim which via paid PR campaigns is elevated to a dispute is well known. It won't work in this case.

Lately Turkish pashas in Ankara have invented a new "dispute" over the islands of Gavdos and Gavdopoula south of Crete. The US, through spokesman Nicholas Burns called that claim "nonsense".

So tell us Lordo, what excuse will Turkey use to take over Lilmassol. Last time it was for the protection of the TCs whom it reduced by 50 per cent. This time it will be for the protection of GCs? Nothing surprises me from such cynical bastards. Or like Nasradin Hodja said re the doneky, from a **** expect everything.