Front Page Headlines
Repurposing old Nicosia
Grand plans for what the state hopes will be an urban transformation
- 2021 elections: Elections to take place against a backdrop of growing disillusionment
- Halloumi set for battle in Australia
- Opinion: What the PDO means for Turkish Cypriots
New ‘committee’ for compensations has sprouted
Advisory company in London is tempting TCs for properties in the ‘south’.
- Turkish plan causing fear: It aims to take the RoC out of the EU and admit the pseudo-state
- Five-party: Historic events and the need for a narrative
Covid: The unnecessary risk Cypriots are taking
The refusal of quite a few of our compatriots to get vaccinated poses more serious threats.
- The grand finale after 57 years of Cyprus problem talks
- Negotiating (team): Where is the President taking things and who is he persuading?
- Parliamentary elections: The ‘recipe’ of the two big parties
- Adamos Aspris-DIPA (interview): Corruption and Cyprus problem connected
Derby on all fronts
Poll by ‘Ph’: Battle between DISY-AKEL for first place and four parties for fourth place. From 7 to 9 parties in the new Parliament. Leaks from the big ones to the small ones new combinations.
- Turkish message ahead of the five-party: Recognition of pseudo-state for 24 hours and promises of flexibility
- Positions of the ‘5’ different: Meeting with divergences and many interests
- Response with the positions of the Turkish President
- Ahment, Dionysos and the dream: The Turkish Cypriot friend of the Stavrovouni Abbot
- Rina Katselli: “The RoC still exists due to refugees”
- Agriculture Minister: This is how we got halloumi PDO
Turkish plans for Morphou-Karpasia
The Turkish side is sending a message of intransigence on the territorial issue too just before the informal five-party in Geneva. The rhetoric used a few months ago for Varosha is being used.
- Halloumi: Bureau Veritas the key
- While we’re fighting amongst each other
- Brussels: Erdogan flirts with 320 billion euros
- To the polls with introversion
AKEL proposes packet of support measures for tourism
The tragic situation of the tourism industry is proof of the government’s failure.
- Five-party: The President is called to reflect. The scenarios for its outcome
- With the forces of a solution on both sides
- Chauvinism: Despite the slaughter of 30 of his relatives in Maratha, (Huseyin Akansoy) sent a message of peace and reunification of our homeland
Patience until May
Health Minister to… tired Cypriots. Until mid to late May we’ll have developed the wall of immunity with vaccinations, something that will allow us to lift any restrictions and return to our normal lives. We are the fifth best country in the entire world in the management of the pandemic.
- We’ll be called to choose an ally: The Biden administration doesn’t only intend to give, but is also interested in taking
- Christos Panayiotides (opinion): The role of Russia in Cyprus and the Cyprus problem
Main News
Lute, Morton to visit Cyprus next week
Kathimerini, Phileleftheros, Politis
Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
The UN Secretary General’s (UNSG) special envoy Jane Holl Lute is scheduled to pay a visit to Cyprus on April 11, the papers report.
Kathimerini reports that before Lute’s arrival, Cyprus is also expecting the UK Minister for European Neighbourhood Wendy Morton. Citing top diplomatic sources, Kathimerini reports that the initial aim was to avoid a meeting between Morton and Anastasiades in view of sending a message of Nicosia’s disapproval of Britain’s initiatives seeking to bridge the differences between the two sides.
Phileleftheros reports citing sources that during the meeting between Lute and Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu in Turkey on March 22, Cavusoglu said Turkey is not willing to discuss anything other than a two-state solution. In response, Lute said any discussion that goes beyond the agreed-upon framework would require a decision by the UN Security Council (UNSC), that is not expected to happen. Even so, the paper reports that the UN has accepted that at the informal five-party summit in Geneva, all positions can be tabled, including Turkey’s position for a two-state solution. Kathimerini reports that Lute will likely relay Turkey’s positions to Nicosia upon her visit.
Phileleftheros and Kathimerini report that sources in Nicosia are predicting that during the upcoming Cyprus problem process, Turkey will use old strategies to drive Cyprus talks to an impasse, that would open the way for the implementation of its plans for a two-state solution.
The papers report citing sources that one of the strategies being re-employed involves the formula pursued by the former TC leader Rauf Denktas, whereby Ankara will demand that the north is recognised for a short period of time – Phileleftheros says 24 hours – after which Ankara will accept that a federal solution is tabled for negotiations. Phileleftheros reports that the strategy has been discussed at the highest level and has been relayed to the north, but adds that the proposal can only fail as the GC side won’t accept such a scenario.
Phileleftheros reports that a potential approach by Ankara, whereby it will show greater flexibility during talks if the GC side’s acceptance of the TC side’s sovereign equality, has been communicated to Nicosia via third parties, who requested that Nicosia show willingness to facilitate the new peace process. The paper reports that overall, Turkey is tabling a range of matters and is allowing various scary scenarios to leak in a bid to secure as much as it can.
Phileleftheros reports that in the event that the UNSC will be asked to differentiate its mandate to the UNSG in terms of the solution framework, the role of Russia and the US will be critical. The paper writes that both parties reject any changes to the framework of a bizonal bicommunal federation (BBF). The US, the paper reports, views a solution that would grant Turkey control over Cyprus as a scenario that would also grant Turkey control in the Eastern Mediterranean, something that it is not willing to allow to happen.
Analysing Turkey’s claim for a two-state solution, Phileleftheros writes that this involves the claim for sovereign equality and an equal international status, meaning that the domestic conditions of equality would be reflected internationally. This would grant Turkey the benefits of securing EU presence through the TC constituent state and a role and voice in energy matters. Should this pursuit fail, the paper reports that Turkey’s plan B is to drive the process to consecutive impasses allowing it to seek a final ‘divorce’, which would require the recognition of two states. But, the paper writes, Turkey has already prepared several contingency plans, one of which includes a potential annexation of the north with Turkey, which would require a referendum in the north and approval from Turkey’s Grand National Assembly. Another game plan involves a campaign for the recognition of the north, with Turkey’s satellite states to give the first push.
Phileleftheros reports that despite Turkish pursuits, Nicosia is equipped with the tools to block any adverse outcome, since nothing can be imposed without the consent of the GC side, which can also utilise Turkey’s demand for a modernisation of the customs union with the EU to set certain conditions. But the paper writes that all plans could be overturned if the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moves to call for early elections in June, since such a scenario would require Erdogan to make bold moves involving the local economy and the country’s international issues with Greece and Cyprus.
Regarding the other two guarantor powers, Phileleftheros reports that while Greece supports that a solution should give rise to a normal state within the EU through the abolition of guarantees and rights to intervention, Britain is seeking a solution that won’t affect the existence and autonomy of its bases in Cyprus.
Kathimerini reports that the joint front between Turkey and the north is also bringing the fore the matter of territorial readjustment, with the Turkish side seeking to remove Morphou along with Varosha from the list of territories that will be returned to the previous GC inhabitants. Citing sources, the paper reports that Morphou is being subjected to a similar rhetoric and strategy as that employed for Varosha, with plans being drawn up for new housing complexes and other developments in the area. The paper reports that Karpasia has also been removed from the list of territories that would be returned through a solution, with sources claiming that new agreements between Ankara and the north for the upgrading of the latter also include developments in Karpasia, where a modern road network is in the plans to facilitate access to the area.
Politis probes the matter of the make-up of the GC negotiating team, which includes members such as Tasos Tzionis who in a recent interview expressed his conviction that political equality would lead to dysfunctionality and ultimately sovereign equality. The paper questions President Nicos Anastasiades’ response to the reactions that broke out, mainly by the leaders of DISY and AKEL, with Anastasiades stating that a plurality of ideas can only help Nicosia overcome any difficulties that may arise. But Politis asks whether these differing opinions will in the end pose obstacles for Nicosia if the outcome does turn out to be a BBF with political equality, and also poses the question of the image being created in the eyes of the international community in terms of Anastasiades’ credibility through the inclusion of the ‘rejectionist’ point of view in his negotiating team.
Politis reports that sources from within the negotiating team are wondering whether the team itself is just a façade, since in-depth discussions are not being held, while any matter that is tabled for discussion is cut short by some who claim that it has already been agreed. Regarding a decentralised federation, the sources said that the negotiating team’s position is that not many competences can be decentralised. Tension also surrounds the matter of political equality, since the sources told Politis that the members aren’t clarifying what the GC side is willing to accept and what it has already granted to the TC side. The paper reports that it appears that Nicosia will travel to Geneva with a position in favour of the Guterres Framework, but once the question is posed regarding the GC side’s definition of political equality, the negotiating team for the time being doesn’t know what Nicosia’s response will be.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of upcoming talks, Phileleftheros reports that Turkey’s move to air the pilot episode of the new series ‘Once Upon a Time in Cyprus’ on April 1, when Cyprus marked on Thursday the 66th anniversary of the start of the EOKA struggle against British rule, only served to create a tense climate among the two sides by suggesting that co-habitation between the two communities is impossible.