UN personal envoy for the Cyprus problem Maria Angela Holguin has warned that the favourable window on the Cyprus problem is slipping away, saying a confrontational climate and a lack of political will are hampering efforts to restart the process.
“It is clear that the favourable opportunity we had during the past year and at the beginning of this year is gradually being lost,” Holguin told Turkish news agency ANKA in an interview. She said the situation in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean was becoming increasingly complex, which could also affect the Cyprus problem negatively.
Asked about efforts to restrict the international contacts of Turkish Cypriot representatives and other actions that, according to the Turkish Cypriot side, damage trust, Holguin said such practices make an already complicated situation even harder. Asked whether a favourable environment could be created under these conditions, she replied: “Absolutely not.”
“Negotiations do not appear on their own, nor are they born in a hostile environment,” she said. The process requires understanding and acceptance of the other side’s existence, she added, saying she had discussed the issue repeatedly with the negotiators over the past month.
New York trilateral
Holguin also gave her account of why a trilateral meeting in New York between UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman did not take place.
Such a meeting had not been on Guterres’s schedule from the start, she said, as he had planned separate meetings with the two leaders. During the contacts in New York, Christodoulides proposed a trilateral meeting. Holguin conveyed the proposal to Erhurman, who asked whether there was any new proposal that could make the meeting substantive.
She told him that Christodoulides had repeated proposals he had already put forward at the two leaders’ last bilateral meeting. Erhurman concluded that, since the conditions for substantive progress had not been created, a trilateral meeting would not produce a positive result, Holguin said.
She stressed that the UN’s role is to facilitate and that it cannot substitute for the political decisions of the two sides. “We can give advice, but in the end the decision belongs to the leaders,” she said.
Confidence-building measures
Holguin said some confidence-building measures could be implemented immediately if the necessary political will existed. The two sides have agreed to set up a new technical committee on natural disasters, she said, but have not yet settled how they would respond jointly to a natural disaster anywhere on the island.
She also referred to measures on managing irregular migration, demining and sport, saying the obstacles are not only technical but also a matter of political decision.
She referred to new crossing points at Athienou-Aglandjia, Mia Milia and Louroujina-Lymbia. A crossing at Mia Milia could significantly boost trade, a benefit recognised by the chambers of commerce of both communities, she said. “However, to date there has not been the political will for us to proceed.”
2015-2017 convergences
The UN is examining the joint documents submitted by the two sides between 2015 and 2017, along with other material from its archives, Holguin said. Those documents are the closest record of the convergences reached in past negotiations.
The document will not be presented before new negotiations begin, she said, as releasing it early could spark fresh disagreement over how to interpret the earlier talks. “If we present it earlier, it will open a new chapter of disagreement. It will be given when negotiations begin and when it can be useful.”
She also questioned the logic of automatically repeating methods simply because they were used before. “If everything had always been done the same way, perhaps that is exactly why no greater progress has been made to date,” she said.
October contacts
Holguin said she would keep working to create the conditions for a meaningful 5+1 meeting. Her contacts planned for October will focus on both the content and the method of a future negotiating process.
The aim is to agree on a methodology that does not create obstacles from the outset but helps progress. That methodology should set the framework, rules and principles within which short, medium and long-term goals would be pursued. In every negotiation, she said, the parties agree on a method for how the talks will be conducted, and the UN is asking the two sides to work out together the framework within which they can take their own decisions.
The UN will impose neither the outcome nor the steps to be followed, she said. “The UN is in Cyprus to facilitate, not to impose or dictate what must be done.”
Every negotiation requires a willingness to make concessions and compromises and to seek mutual benefit, conditions which, she said, “do not appear to exist at this moment”.
Her October visit is particularly important, she said, as the diplomatic window to restart a meaningful process will not stay open indefinitely. The upcoming contacts are expected to examine whether the two sides are ready to take concrete confidence-building steps, implement measures already agreed and reach a common approach on how any new talks would be conducted.
(Information from Cyprus News Agency)
