Cyprus-Forum.com

[cypezokyli]

what do you think about the bicomunal meetings arranged by fullbright, UN ,UNOPS etc ?

what do you think about the few bicomunal organisation that are around?

thanks

[zan]

Anything that helps is fine by me.

[Maria28]

Anything that helps reapproachment is good

[Piratis]

Bicommunal meetings are good, but can only help up to a certain degree.

They are only one of the ingredients needed for a solution.

Another important ingredient is a common aim and common principles. As long as this is missing the bicommunal meetings will not be able to produce anything significant.

I believe that what has to be achieved before any such meetings can have a significant result, is that the dialog should be based on principles and not on the balance of power.

If the dialog is based on the current balance of power (e.g. "we won the war", "you have to accept the realities we force on you" etc) then such meetings are useless and do not contribute anything more to the official meetings that our leaders have.

[Viewpoint]

I agree that principles have to be play a part in bicommunal meetings but the issues of both communites fears, concerns and trust have to dealt with. Nothing is just black and white there are areas of grey that will have to be accepted by both sides so as to find middle ground. If one side continually chants certain text book sentences and does not see or address the unique situation we are in to solve the issues then these meetings will be no more than social gatherings at best.

[Piratis]

I agree that principles have to be play a part in bicommunal meetings but the issues of both communites fears, concerns and trust have to dealt with.

If the principles are common then any fears, concerns and trust issues can be dealt within these common principles. After all many of these principles have evolved to what they are today exactly because they are the best ways to deal with such issues.

[Viewpoint]

In principle you are right but we are unique and we can only reach the pinicle by taking specific guaranteed measures to improve relations between our communites. Goodwill has to be exibited by both leaderships so the the people realize that working together serves our best interests. But if you come to the table and try to enforce for example that you are the only governement on the whole island then you will be starting off on the wrong foot and ensuring that TCs walk away. the realities are before all of us we have to use what we have to everyones benefit.

[sadik]

what do you think about the bicomunal meetings arranged by fullbright, UN ,UNOPS etc ?

what do you think about the few bicomunal organisation that are around?

thanks

I believe bicommunal meetings are very helpful. I believe people from different communities getting together is a good thing in and of itself, even when they do not attempt to solve anything. We can at least start seeing each other as human beings of flesh and blood. I attended to and supported bicommunal conflict resolution meetings before the checkpoints were opened.

One criticism that I have for these prior American supported meetings is that they were giving the impression that the problem in Cyprus is a psychological one and everything will be OK if we avoid using terms that might be offensive to the others. This might be of some help but the fact is that the problem has deep political and international aspects, which are much more significant and can not be ignored.

[Kifeas]

what do you think about the bicomunal meetings arranged by fullbright, UN ,UNOPS etc ?

what do you think about the few bicomunal organisation that are around?

thanks

I believe bicommunal meetings are very helpful. I believe people from different communities getting together is a good thing in and of itself, even when they do not attempt to solve anything. We can at least start seeing each other as human beings of flesh and blood. I attended to and supported bicommunal conflict resolution meetings before the checkpoints were opened.

One criticism that I have for these prior American supported meetings is that they were giving the impression that the problem in Cyprus is a psychological one and everything will be OK if we avoid using terms that might be offensive to the others. This might be of some help but the fact is that the problem has deep political and international aspects, which are much more significant and can not be ignored.

Precisely! You see, those were not issue in which we Cypriots were supposed to have too much of a say, according to their own understanding of the Cyprus problem. Those political, legal and other international implications were the issues which they reserved for themselves to have the ultimate saying. We the Cypriots were only supposed to be prepared psychologically to accommodate them, and this was the main objective of those meetings. First they allowed and facilitated to a large extent the nationalists in both communities and their so-called motherlands to plant and cultivate the psychological gap, in order for them to act later as the fire extinguishers so that this would allow them to introduce their own solution preferences in Cyprus.

[cypezokyli]

Precisely! You see, those were not issue in which we Cypriots were supposed to have too much of a say, according to their own understanding of the Cyprus problem.

i dont know. did you attend any kifeas ? i never attented any. could sadik gives us some input on this ? where you left alone in discussing or did the leaders lead the discussions where they wanted ?
do you think it mattered that it was the americans that did them?
do you think in that perios could it have been achieced without the americans?
and
did it change your opinion about the cyprus problem and the other side ?

thanks