GCC Press Review 24 Nov 2019

Front Page Headlines

Sunday Mail

Drug haunt mars Paphos

Dealers selling drugs to crowds of teens near Paphos mall.

  • Coffee shop: A tough week for Nik(os Anastasiades) and a dinner in Berlin (opinion piece)

Simerini

Turkish minefield under the Berlin trilateral

Compensations through natural gas so that the north does not become Turkish and alternative choices for action.

  • Position: The… planeteer (Editorial on why Erdogan is the true planeteer)
  • Geopolitics: The mystic of Eurasianism (Aleksandr Dugin) in the occupied areas
  • Savvas Iacovides: Anastasiades in Berlin under triple blackmail (opinion piece)
  • Lazaros A. Mavros: Again at the Berlin cookhouse with the wrong recipe (opinion piece)
  • Christodoulos K. Yiallourides: Boundaries to the European Course (opinion piece)

Politis

The van reveals its big secrets

Who is Tal Dilian and the $9 million software? The virus through which all phone and computer data are transferred to the big server in Larnaca has been discovered. One million phone numbers have been captured by Intellexa’s antennas, with police needing three weeks to process them. The van’s GPS is being scrutinised to ensure its routes in tandem with reports on surveillance in Cyprus.

  • One die-cast … in Berlin – The two sides’ luggage at the trilateral that will take place tomorrow at the former divided German capital is heavy.

Phileleftheros

An understanding is feasible

Nikos Christodoulides leaves an open window for positive results in Berlin through his statements to Phileleftheros. They keep the expectation bar low for tomorrow’s meeting.

  • Lute’s secret dinner – The trilateral’s backstage. There might be a joint announcement after the Berlin dinner after all. Nicosia seeks for the three pillars of the Terms of Reference to be recorded. At the TC side, they see white smoke on political equality.
  • Goings-on in Brussels give Nicosia a headache
  • The Cypriot ownership of the solution ends
  • Michalinos Zembylas – Yiannis Papadakis: Imagine brings together children from both communities
  • Stefanos Constantinides: Historic monographs of Cypriot villages (opinion piece)
  • Nicos Charalambous: The Republic of Cyprus must be rescued (opinion piece)

Kathimerini

Games of balance in Berlin

Both sides are assessing intentions while Athens and Ankara have other priorities.

  • Pompeo-Christodoulides: Three agreements on the arms embargo
  • Poker by Turkey in the East Med – Ankara wants an opening in Lebanon, Libya, Palestine.

Haravgi

Natural gas part of the PR game

The current government has approached the hydrocarbon case more as a PR tool for internal consumption instead of a tool for improving Cyprus’ geostrategic position, promotion of the Cyprus problem and the financial development of the country, AKEL stresses. Andros Kyprianou reports that “the only thing the government and DISY were interested was cultivating illusions among the Cypriot people that we would become an alternative (natural gas) market for Europe and elsewhere.”

  • No more dangerous poisons in the area ( bicommunal rally against the use of cyanide by the mining industry)
  • Politics: The two leaders in Berlin today for the trilateral
  • Potamia: Example of peaceful cohabitation – “During the war, we were frightened together,” say GCs and TCs. Family bonds between the residents.
  • Andros Kyprianou: Time should not be left to pass unutilized until April

Alithia

Tomorrow the final exams

The two communities’ leaders are called to show will for the solution of the Cyprus problem during a crucial moment. Τhe Guterres message: “Commit to the six-point framework I suggested on June 30, 2017.” And his warning: “The people of Cyprus need to know that this time it is different.”

  • Cyprus problem: The dinners had their own… history (article on the leaders’ dinners in Cyprob’s history)

Main News

Berlin trilateral could yield surprises

Kathimerini, Phileleftheros, Simerini
Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

The dailies, citing sources, report that there has been some progress during UN special envoy Jane Holl Lute’s latest visit to the island and there could be surprising announcements after Monday’s dinner in Berlin.

Phileleftheros reports that Lute’s latest visit to the island helped change things a bit during a dinner she hosted for the two sides’ negotiators which was not announced. During the dinner, the TC side abandoned its refusal on the issuance of a statement after the trilateral, but also it seems it expressed some satisfaction as to the positions of the GC side on political equality. Citing a well-informed source, the paper reported that, on political equality, Nicosia refers to the well-known positions included in the UN resolutions.

In the case of a joint statement, this will refer to the ToR which includes the 2014 Joint Declaration, the convergences and the Guterres Framework.

The sources said that the issue would be how Turkey will react to the possibility of a joint statement after the Berlin dinner since the instructions by Ankara to the TCs is that there should be no commitment as to the future concerning the Cyprus problem. The question is whether TC leader Mustafa Akinci will disobey Ankara or whether Turkey will shelve any result of the trilateral, the sources said.

According to information, Ankara told the UN she would not want any developments prior to elections in the UK and the north, arguing that a five-party meeting at the moment would not yield results, the daily reported.

The reason Ankara wants a five-party meeting plus one (three guarantors, the two communities and the UNSG) after April is that she is hoping to get rid of Akinci after the elections because she needs a TC leader to back her proposal for a two-state and a confederation solution, the paper reported.

Kathimerini citing the announcement in 2016 for talks in Switzerland, following another dinner of the two leaders, reported that the Berlin dinner could hold surprises. This, however, will depend on how each side will act, the paper said. The daily cites sources arguing that all possibilities are open with the scenario on a failure of the dinner talks as a distant one.

Diplomatic sources told the daily that Anastasiades will express his readiness for an agreement on the ToR aimed at a five-party meeting in December. This move aims at leaving Turkey exposed since she does not favour any developments, while will also relieve tensions internally on criticism on the way the government has handled the golden passports and the spy van case, the sources told the paper.

The paper said the question, however, would be how much Nicosia is prepared for an informal five-party meeting while pointing out that Athens too does not favour such a meeting at the moment citing Ankara’s positions and the road map proposed. Diplomatic sources, however, told the daily that if Nicosia is willing, Athens will follow.

The same paper in another article, an analysis piece, reports statements by sources within the GC side that there could be serious developments citing similar dinners in the past, probably wanting to soften the bad impression given after former TC leader Mehmet Ali Talat’s revelations that Anastasiades said there was no point going to the Berlin meeting. In reality, the daily said, it is not possible for Nicosia to expect any surprises given that there has not been any change to Ankara’s stance.

Simerini, in its main item, an analysis piece, cites diplomatic sources saying that regardless of the outcome, the UN does not intend on blaming anyone because they want to keep the process alive and an agreement on a five-party meeting.  In reality, however, Turkey is becoming more and more aggressive and makes clear that for a federal solution to be made possible, Turkey’s terms must be accepted which, among other things, include a formula for the payment of compensation to refugees from the natural gas proceeds, the paper reports.


Nicosia expects the UN to finally confront Turkey as regards her stance on Cyprob

Phileleftheros
Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

The daily reports that Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said that the main aim from Monday’s meeting in Berlin is for progress to pave the way for the relaunch of substantive talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana.

Christodoulides told the paper that for Nicosia, the result of August 9 meeting between the two leaders but also of the talks with UN special envoy Jane Holl Lute, form the necessary basis that makes an agreement on the Terms of Reference (ToR) feasible. He reiterated that the ToR could be the 2014 Joint Declaration, the convergences up to Crans-Montana, and the Guterres Framework as presented by the UNSG on June 30, 2017.

He added that this was the expectation of the GC side and this is the goal with which Anastasiades is going to Berlin. A successful trilateral would lead to an informal five-party meeting even within December which would decide on the methodology and procedure to be followed at the talks.

Christodoulides also said that the role of the UN Secretary-General will be a decisive one as regards Turkey’s stance in order to allow for a positive outcome of the trilateral and a five-party meeting soon after but also on the creation of a climate that will support the restart of the talk.

The daily reports that this statement by Christodoulides is a message to the UN that they need at some point to also put pressure on Turkey so that there is progress on the whole process.

KEY ACTORS
Christodoulides
>>
Nicosia believes the main ingredients for an agreement on the ToR at the trilateral are there & Anastasiades is going to Berlin to see progress to pave the way for a five-party meeting.
>> The ToR could include the 2014 Joint Declaration, the convergences up to Crans-Montana, and the Guterres Framework as presented by the UNSG on June 30, 2017.
>> The methodology & procedure to be followed at the talks could be decided at the informal five-party meeting which could take place in December.
>> Guterres’ role could be a decisive one as regards Turkey’s stance on allowing for a positive outcome of the trilateral & a five-party meeting but also on the creation of a climate that will support the restart of the talk.


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