Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos has asked why UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not yet tabled a framework of strategic points for negotiation on the Cyprus problem. Speaking on CyBC’s ‘Proektaseis’ programme, he said such a move “could set dramatic developments in motion”.
Kombos firmly rejected the view that the process had stagnated. The critical moment would come, he said, when the secretary-general put on the table a framework of strategic points that would have to be negotiated for the process to be concluded. That would be a very important moment.
The framework could be the convergence document or, more likely, a document setting out points of strategic divergence along the lines of Crans-Montana, he said. He referred to the secretary-general’s 2017 report, which listed the points of strategic disagreement. The thinking then was that agreement on those six points would open the way to a strategic agreement. The question, Kombos said, was whether Guterres would do this, or rather why he had not done so yet.
He said the Greek Cypriot side was ready and had nothing to fear, provided the framework stayed within the Security Council’s parameters. He blamed the delay on Ankara’s refusal, which he said had been confirmed publicly. Before taking the next step, the secretary-general must judge that all sides are willing to negotiate. The question, he added, was whether the Turkish side would move away from its position of two states and sovereign equality.
The UN has said it will not hand the convergence document to the sides. Kombos said Nicosia considered it extremely useful for them to have it, because it confirms the basis for a solution and the progress made up to Crans-Montana. The next step, however, mattered more.
He said the end of the secretary-general’s term was a factor affecting the timetable. Contacts in Nicosia could intensify with the help of Maria Angela Holguin, he said, in a dialogue he described as fairly productive.
Pressure on Turkey
Asked whether the Republic of Cyprus’s alliances could push Ankara back to the agreed basis for a solution, Kombos said progress depended enormously, or even exclusively, on Turkey. In 52 years, he said, no government, whichever party was in power, had seen enough international pressure on Turkey to force it to do so.
He named Ankara’s steady insistence, even obsession, with two states as the decisive reason there are no negotiations today. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently repeated that position at the UN General Assembly.
The question about alliances, Kombos said, risked absolving Turkey and encouraging self-flagellation on the Greek Cypriot side. He identified three sources of criticism.
The first comes from people who oppose the alliances because they see them as working against Turkey and backfiring. He equated this view with the idea that the Republic should be downgraded as an entity. The second comes from people who believe the deadlock can only be broken with generous offers. He called this appeasement and wishful thinking, which hopes the perpetrator will change its approach to the victim. The third comes from people who do not question alliances in general, but which ones Cyprus has.
Turkey regards the Republic of Cyprus as defunct, he said, and that is not a figure of speech. Foreign policy had to deal with this, because part of its mission was to protect the existence of the state.
Asked why Turkey would return to the table if it saw Cyprus as its vital space, Kombos said it would do so for the same reason it had in previous years. The unresolved issue created serious problems for Ankara’s wider strategy, particularly its relationship with the EU, and carried a cost that was underestimated, he said.
Tuesday meeting
Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said he hoped for a thorough discussion when President Nikos Christodoulides meets Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Tuesday. The Greek Cypriot side had accepted everything agreed at the two previous enlarged meetings on Cyprus, as well as the UN secretary-general’s compromise proposal, he said. It had also submitted 19 proposals to help the effort as much as possible.
