GCC Press Review 29 Sep 2019

Front Page Headlines

Sunday Mail

‘We have lost lots of money’

Paphos hotels count the cost of the collapse of Thomas Cook.

  • Government to resort to the Security Council over Varosha

Simerini

(Archbishop Chrysostomos:) “I will be here as long as God keeps me strong”

I am not worried about the Cyprus problem because there is no solution. Some people want the downfall of the education minister.

  • Position: State abominations (Editorial on the futility of the sought after solution)
  • The ‘patches’ to the defence gap and Lute’s document
  • Cyprob: From “we seal the Terms of Reference to go to a trilateral” to “we will go to a trilateral to finalise the Terms of Reference”
  • EEZ: Why giving block 7 to Total/Eni irked Ankara
  • Takis Hadjigerogiou: “An idea for Cyprus and the region” (opinion piece)
  • Tasos Yasemides: Too big to collapse? (opinion piece)
  • Savvas Iacovides: The headscarf and Europe’s Islamisation (opinion piece)

Politis

Tomorrow things will become clear on the trilateral

Guterres will decide after the meeting with Akinci. Turkey wants to go directly to an informal five-party to agree on the basis for negotiation, to clarify what will happen next and then seal the Terms of Reference. The GC side prefers a trilateral first to agree on the Terms of Reference and then a conference to agree on the methodology and how to continue the negotiation.

  • No dispute – The UN Secretary-General seems prepared to continue the process as it has already been launched if the GC and TC sides jointly desire; a trilateral first and then an informal five-party meeting. However, he has no intention nor willingness to confront any side to impose anything, nor will he insist on something. If there is really no common ground between the sides, Antonio Guterres will not make a move on his own.
  • Charles Ellinas: Natural gas, great expectations meagre profits

Phileleftheros

Drillings by force

The content of an international info campaign reveals Ankara’s intentions. The confederation and the two states (will be brought about) by the delimitations.

  • They are cementing the advancement in Strovilia – They ignore the representations. The Attilas are advancing.
  • Ambassador Shmuel Revel: The good relations between Cyprus and Israel a blessing
  • Erdogan at the UN with the audacity of a planeteer…
  • Islamisation in Cyprus (book review)
  • Eleni Stavrou: Faced with hybrid threats
  • Stefanos Constantinides: A nomad through history
  • Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud: Each pilgrimage a step towards peace
  • Michalis Ignatiou: Why the few but usual suspects object? (opinion piece)
  • Christos Iacovou: High-level strategy and the Nihat Erim reports (opinion piece)
  • Stefanos Constantinides: Us and the US (opinion piece)

Kathimerini

Trilateral and informal (five-party) within 45 days

Antonio Guterres insists on having everyone before him and committed to the Terms of Reference.

  • Main article: With prudence (opinion piece on developments on the Cyprob)
  • New York: The crucial video divided the interior
  • Occupied areas: Akinci going for a second ‘term’
  • Takis Hadjigeorgiou: A UN seat in Cyprus (would be) a solution leverage
  • Τhe drill rigs have left but… – What the American embargo on Turkey leaves behind it.
  • Αndreas Paraschos: The vase and the homeland (opinion piece)
  • Petros Zarounas: What are the next Turkish moves in the Cypriot EEZ (opinion piece)

Haravgi

Step for the Cyprob talks in mid-air

President Anastasiades outlined a trilateral meeting in October and agrees with the informal five-party (conference) on procedural issues and not on discussing a solution, as Cavusoglu wants. However, reservations are expressed, based on the current situation, regarding whether negotiations will resume… The UN Secretary-General’s meeting with Mr Akinci tomorrow will be decisive for the Terms of Reference.

  • Mertkan Hamit: Turkish suzerainty is in every corner of the TC community
  • Ν. Kouzoupis: 60 years Republic of Cyprus and the struggle continues
  • Hate crimes find fertile institutional ground in Cyprus as well

Alithia

Famagusta before the Security Council

Our appeal will be filed within the week. The president discussed it with the UNSG and the permanent members of the SC and says he was met with understanding. Our pursuit is the reconfirmation of resolutions 550 and 789. Ready for a trilateral for agreement on the Terms of Reference but also for an informal five-party conference where any other form of solution other than a BBF will be out of the question.

  • Cavusoglu: They realised the seriousness of the situation only after we sent in our ships
  • Analysis: We must not repeat the fatal mistake of 1972

Main News

How the ToR deadlock came about

Kathimerini
Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

Kathimerini reports on the text of the Terms of Reference UN envoy Jane Holl Lute initially submitted to the two leaders last month when she was on the island for consultations and the amendments each side had suggested.

According to Kathimerini, the original text by Jane Holl Lute, which President Anastasiades said he accepts when he arrived in New York, says the two leaders agree to resume the talks that were suspended in 2017 at Crans-Montana and they confirm their commitment and determination to reach a settlement in Cyprus based on a bicommunal bizonal federation with political equality as set out in the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the High-level agreements.

It is underlined that their aim is a united Cyprus with a single international legal personality, single sovereignty which will be equally derived by GCs and TCs and single citizenship regulated by the federal law.

It also says that the ToR will include the 2014 Joint Declaration, previous convergences up to Crans-Montana and the six-point framework presented by Guterres on June 30, 2017.

According to the daily, the text also notes that the two leaders acknowledge that responsibility for finding a solution to the Cyprus problem belongs first and foremost to Cypriots themselves.

They also reaffirm their commitment and determination to start structured and results-oriented talks as soon as possible and do so with a sense of purpose and urgency to achieve a total and lasting settlement within a foreseeable horizon.

According to the paper, Anastasiades has submitted two modifications to the text. The first one concerns the point referring to where the sovereignty derives from since there is a reference on the matter in the Joint Declaration of 2014. The second one concerns the reference to the Guterres Framework where Anastasiades wanted to add “developed” next to “as presented” on June 30, 2017. The first change was accepted by Akinci, who, rejected the second one, the daily reported. Anastasiades did not insist so everyone was under the impression there was an agreement on the text until reactions by TC ‘foreign minister’ Kudret Ozersay and his appeal to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The TCs then wanted to have references to ‘decentralised federation and other ideas’ included in the text on the issue of the sought after solution. On political equality, they wanted to include the phrase “as described in paragraph four” of resolution 716/91 which Anastasiades accepted, the daily reported.

After the Turkish suggestions started arriving, the GC side asked for a reference to be included on the guarantors where it says, “responsibility for finding a solution to the Cyprus problem belongs first and foremost to Cypriots themselves,” based on the UNSG’s report which along with the two leaders also mentioned the interested parties.

When Lute realised that an agreement was impossible, she departed from the island and later sent letters to the two leaders thanking them for their efforts, the daily reported. According to Kathimerini, the most likely scenario is that Guterres will call for a trilateral meeting in the last 15 days of October, with the prospect of convening an informal five-day session in November before submitting a report on his Good Offices to the Security Council.


Turkey active in the buffer zone and EEZ

Phileleftheros
External Security, Energy, Regional/International Relations, Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

The daily reports that the occupation army has started the construction of an outpost in Strovilia.

Citing information, the daily reports that the construction of the outpost started on September 25, south of the settlement, towards the British Bases. The Republic of Cyprus has already made representations to UNFICYP which, it is understood met with the occupation army.

The result? The continuation of the construction works, the daily said.

This is in continuation of the provocative advancement actions by the occupation force last February, the daily reported, when they installed barbed wire on the street within Strovilia which is adjacent to the British bases and have asked GC residents to get driver’s ‘licenses’ issued.

The daily also reported that a second advancement is the construction of the pergola between the two crossings in Ledra street and the installation of the sign “Welcome to the TRNC-Contributions were by the ministry of tourism and environment”.

Citing eye witnesses, the daily reported that during the construction armed Turkish soldiers and pseudo policemen had been checking the progress of the works. The paper also reports that the sign had been removed on September 25 after the UN contacted the office of the TC leader, who, obviously gave an order for its removal but later the pseudo-government had it reinstalled.

In another article, the daily reported that Turkey is determined to proceed with her illegal energy activities in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone and attempts to secure support by third parties in a number of ways.

One of these actions is an international information campaign carried out by Turkish Ambassador Cagatay Erciyes, Director General for Bilateral Political & Maritime Aviation-Border Affairs at the Turkish foreign ministry.

The Turkish ambassador has been briefing foreign governments and organisations on Turkey’s activities in Cyprus’ sea area, which also highlights Turkey’s intentions on the Cyprus problem.

The paper, citing material it has obtained, reports that Turkey raises the logic that everything is on the table as regards the Cyprus problem while trying to justify her illegal activities in the Cypriot EEZ.

During a presentation given on September 17, Turkey tried to claim that activities of the Republic of Cyprus on energy were illegal and that they violate her rights and those of the TCs. She also blames Cyprus for delimiting her EEZ with neighbouring states before the solution of the Cyprus problem.

The presentation also refers to three alternative solutions; federation, two states, confederation.

It also mentions that Turkey is ready to launch maritime boundary demarcation with all neighbouring countries except the GCs, while delimitation of the west boundary of the island should be done after the solution.

The equal rights of TCs as co-owners should be guaranteed from now, and not after a solution, while the TC co-operation proposal of  July 13, 2019, is still on the table and is a good basis for a solution, the presentation says, according to the daily. The basic principles of the TC proposal are that TCs ought to have equal rights in the resources of the whole island as co-owners under any form of a solution, even in the case of non-solution. Simultaneous distribution of economic benefits, common decision-making and the solution will not affect legal and political positions.


Archbishop: There’s no solution unless people want Turkification of entire island

Simerini
Human Rights, External Security, Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

In an interview with Simerini, Archbishop Chrystostomos said he was not concerned by the Cyprus problem because there will be no solution.

Turkey, he said, wants the entire island but also to encroach on the whole of the East Med and the Middle East.

He added that the Turkish president is a very smart man and wants his country to progress but he is doing politics based on his religion, Islam, which is a grave mistake because  Europe, Russia, China, the US and other great powers are not eyeing positively Turkey’s Islamic path.

He presented Turkey as walking on a tightrope, and that she would at some point fall since she will not be able to exert her power over the other Muslim countries in the region.

As regards the Cyprus problem, the Archbishop said no GC leader is able to solve it. Makarios had tried to do that in the past agreeing to a federation but “because of that, he left life prematurely, at 64,” he said.

He added Cypriots can only do two things: support the economy and reinforce the country’s defence by equipping the National Guard with modern, smart weapons systems. This would deter Turkey from attempting any attacks, he said.

The Archbishop said everyone needs to understand there is no solution unless they mean surrender and obedience to Turkey’s will.

‘If we want to be Turkified, the Cyprus problem can be solved easily and fast,” he told the daily.

As regards education, he said he supports Education Minister Costas Hambiaouris and criticised political parties that sometimes behave in an “unacceptable way.”

He argued that the Church was the only institution that had been protecting education during the 2,000 years of its existence and that it had successfully prevented the colonial authorities during the British rule from having a say in secondary education.

“Now, the parties, do not want the Church interfering. Shame on them!” he said, adding that the Chruch has throughout the centuries played a very positive role in the country’s education.

“They ought to be ashamed for wanting the Church to keep away,” he said, according to Simerini.

KEY ACTORS
Archbishop Chrystostomos

>> Does not believe there will be a Cyprob solution because Turkey wants the entire island.
>> No GC leader is able to solve the Cyprob. Makarios tried and died because of it.
>> What Cypriots can only do is support the economy & reinforce the NG with modern, smart weapon systems that would deter Turkey should she attack.
>> If GCs don’t mind being Turkified, the solution will be a fast and easy one.
>> Finds parties unacceptable for not wanting the Church interfering in education given its historic role in protecting national education in the past.


Translate »