Today’s meeting between the President and Ankara’s stooge, Tufan Erhurman, is to all intents and purposes the first since New York. At UN headquarters, despite Nikos Christodoulides’s efforts, there was no joint meeting under the Secretary-General.
The UN was ready for one. Yet with everyone in New York at the same time, the chance went begging. The upshot? A missed opportunity to meet in the presence of Antonio Guterres, who steps down at the end of the year. Having the Secretary-General in the room would at least have guaranteed some next steps.
Perhaps that is exactly what the occupying side wants: to run down the clock until Guterres’s successor is elected, and stall whatever effort is under way. The UN, meanwhile, is clearly trying to make the most of the time left until December, so that the outgoing Secretary-General can hand his successor a ‘legacy’ on Cyprus. A great deal can still be done, if and only if the occupying side responds and serious talks begin.
Ankara plainly has no appetite for talks of any kind, and its stooge gives voice to that. Erhurman complains endlessly, steering well clear of substance. Forever blaming the Greek Cypriot side, he deliberately skirts the bottom line and never actually declares himself ready for talks. That is why the complaints never stop: to snuff out any prospect at all.
Nicosia, whatever is said at home and abroad, is making clear it is ready for talks. Not in theory, but through concrete moves: it is intervening and taking initiatives.
Those initiatives have a clear purpose. At the same time, the President himself has made it known that he will not slide into gestures designed to create a fleeting sense of momentum.
What matters today is a result. Steps forward. That takes will and resolve. But it takes two to tango, and everyone knows it.
