Front Page Headlines
Clock ticking on plastic ban
Businesses expect an extension to EU’s July 3 deadline to ban single-use plastics.
- Anastasiades pays tribute to Nicos Rolandis in eulogy
- Ambitious ‘Cyprus Tomorrow’ plan will take five years
The ballot box will show…
What is at stake and the scenarios for the next day.
- The Turks threshing from the Aegean until Cyprus
- Occupied areas: Deep state of murderers that is seeking sovereignty
- Alarm signal for migration
- Andreas S. Angelides: The House of Representatives and the Cyprus problem, over time
- Savvas Iacovides: Why are today’s elections the most crucial for the survival of Cyprus?
- Lazaros A. Mavros: The underworld as murderers directed by Turkey
- Dr Christos Achilleos Theodoulou: The situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: Some data
What will determine the vote of Cypriots today
Positive or negative vote for the management of the pandemic? Was the economy well or badly managed amid the coronavirus? Was everything needed done to combat decay and corruption? Are we in a better or worse fate as regards the Cyprus problem?
- Kutlu Adali: The case of his murder opening
- Historical retrospective: Women, Turkish Cypriots and the Right
- Reviving Ledra Palace
The big bet of the ballot box
With today’s percentage as a base, the game is being set for the hot topics and 2023. How parties will move inside and outside Parliament will depend on the balances.
- Developments in the Cyprus problem are being prepared: Coordination between the UN and the Foreign Office, with London having the upper hand
- Rapprochement between USA-Turkey? Biden-Erdogan going toward a meeting
- Tayyip claiming the role of peripheral ruler
- Manfred Weber: The EU one voice against Turkey
- ‘Aphrodite’ on thorns
Elections of changes and challenges
The psychological limit of numbers, all possible scenarios and the new alliances of the next day.
- Turkey should change stance on the Cyprus problem: Charles Michel talks to ‘K’
- EU-Turkey relations: The Customs Union going toward postponement
They’re loading interest and surcharges onto households and SMBs
Report by the Central Bank shows additional new increases and stricter criteria
- Cyprus problem: Without a light in the tunnel… Initiatives for a return to the agreed framework
- Parliamentary elections: Their history and the need to modernise the functioning of Parliament
- Two years GESY
- Dedication award to the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage
557,589 voters, but how many will vote?
The hour of truth. Today the people speak. Abstention a big question, which in 2016 had emerged as the first… party (33.26%)! Historical retrospective of abstention from the ballot box from 1960 until today. The historic record and the fear of a repetition of the European Parliament elections phenomenon.
- Political analysis: Elections in Cyprus, Greece-Turkey in dialogue
- Building the wall of immunity
Main News
Preparations underway for second informal 5+1
Haravgi, Kathimerini, Phileleftheros
Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
Preparations to lay the groundwork for a second informal five-party summit on Cyprus have begun with the aim of ensuring that the impasse that marked the informal Geneva meeting in late April is broken, Phileleftheros reports.
Phileleftheros reports that Deputy Political Director of the UK Foreign Office Ajay Sharma held a series of contacts in Cyprus over the past few days, and is also expected to coordinate with the UN Secretary General (UNSG)’s Special Envoy Jane Holl Lute who is also set to visit Cyprus next week. The paper writes that London is exerting efforts to keep Cyprus problem momentum high, with Sharma attempting to create a climate that would allow the holding of a new summit. Phileleftheros notes that London views the current climate of de-escalation as a window of opportunity for Cyprus talks, but it is also warning that Turkey could return to the Cyprus EEZ with exploratory and drill ships and move forward with its plans for Varosha, and is therefore urging that we “move quickly”.
Regarding Varosha, Phileleftheros reports citing information that Turkey is continuing work there with developments expected to move forward during the summer. The paper writes that in response the Nicosia has reached out to the Ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), requesting that they call on the Turkish side to stop attempts to impose new faits accomplis. Phileleftheros reports that ongoing moves in Varosha may also be related to the expected visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the north on July 20 to mark the anniversary of the 1974 invasion.
Phileleftheros, returning to the issue of the ‘British formula’ which it understands as a confederal solution, writes that London believes that common ground can be found if Nicosia explains in detail its proposal for a decentralised federation and addresses the concerns of the TC and Turkish sides, which the paper views as essentially a call for the GC side to satisfy Turkish claims.
Haravgi reports that in an online discussion, AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou and the party’s Cyprob expert Toumazos Tselepis reiterated that Anastasiades must take specific initiatives to neutralise Turkey’s insistence on a two-state solution, and also pointed to certain positions held by Anastasiades which he said undermine past convergences and particularly the one involving a TC positive vote in the Cabinet. Kyprianou and Tselepis said a TC positive vote ensures that decisions are not taken by a single community, therefore keeping the state viable. Countering Anastasiades’ position that TCs must only have a say in matters that involve them, Kyprianou and Tselepis wondered which issues that will be taken up by the central government will not affect the TC community.
Haravgi reports that sources have little hopes for the Cyprob developments to follow, pointing to the fact that both sides even disagree on the issue of when they would like to see the second informal five-party summit held, with the GC side pushing for before and Turkey for after the European Council summit to be held in late June. Haravgi reports that though TC media point to autumn for the period in which the second 5+1 is to be held, the paper notes that the UNSG might want to include a more positive touch than the impasse of the Geneva 5+1 in his reports on his good offices mission and UNFICYP to be submitted to the UNSC. Phileleftheros reports that all sides are also aware that their time to secure progress is limited, since 2023 will see elections take place in both Cyprus and Turkey.
Haravgi reports that developments in the issue of a positive agenda between the EU and Turkey will also inevitably affect developments concerning the second informal meeting, since the EU has made clear that Turkey must show good behaviour as regards the Cyprus problem and the Eastern Mediterranean region to reap the benefits of a positive agenda, including a modernised customs union. Haravgi reports that though President Nicos Anastasiades has threatened to veto a positive agenda if Turkey doesn’t improve its stance, he has in the past placed the bar high to no avail. Ultimately, Haravgi reports that political observers claim that the coming months are expected to see a ‘hard poker’ game unfolding which will determine whether Cyprus’ future will involve a bizonal, bicommunal federation (BBF) or partition.
In an interview with Kathimerini, European Council President Charles Michel said the EU is prepared to use all the tools it has at its disposal to change Turkey’s behaviour. Almost a month before the European Council Summit on June 24-25, Michel said the EU has presented to Turkish authorities a strong, common position, prepared in close cooperation with 27 member-states, and especially Greece and Cyprus. “We sent a clear message: We are ready for a more positive agenda, but our mood is conditional, it is proportionate and reversible,” he said, adding that this means that it will be realised only if there is progress in different fields – and especially in Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus issue and human rights. “It will depend on Turkey’s behavior,” he said.
Asked if he could make an interim assessment on whether Turkish policy has been moving in the right direction since early April, Michel said he did not want to do so before the end of June, but noted that “in the past we have seen one step in the right direction and then two in the wrong direction.”
In another article, Kathimerini reports citing sources that the issue of the modernisation of the customs union between the EU and Turkey may see a ‘tactical postponement’ during the upcoming EUCO, with the EU to focus on providing Turkey with a financial injection for migration. The paper notes that EU circles are expecting that developments on the customs union will be pushed back until after the summer for tactical reasons. The paper writes that if any final decisions on the customs union are postponed, momentum on the matter will be kept high through references in the Conclusions so that Erdogan is kept happy.
In an interview with Phileleftheros, leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) Manfred Weber that Europe will not accept any further fragmentation of its neighbourhood and its family and considers Turkey’s insistence on a two-state solution in Cyprus unacceptable. Weber said the EPP always supported the Republic during Turkey’s provocations in the Cyprus EEZ and in Varosha, as well as in its efforts to secure a viable solution. Weber said the EPP consistently supports negotiations that would lead to a BBF in line with UN resolutions and the EU acquis.
KEY ACTORS
Kyprianou & Tselepis (AKEL)
>> Anastasiades must take specific initiatives to neutralise Turkey’s insistence on a two-state solution
>> Certain positions held by Anastasiades undermine past convergences and particularly the one involving a TC positive vote in the Cabinet
>> A TC positive vote ensures that decisions are not taken by a single community, keeping the state viable
Michel (EU)
>> EU is prepared to use all the tools it has at its disposal to change Turkey’s behaviour
>> EU has presented to Turkish authorities a strong, common position: We are ready for a more positive agenda, but our mood is conditional, it is proportionate and reversible
>> A positive agenda will be realised only if there is progress in different fields, especially in Greek-Turkish relations, the Cyprus problem and human rights
Weber (EPP)
>> Turkey’s insistence on a two-state solution in Cyprus unacceptable
>> The EPP always supported the Republic during Turkey’s provocations in the Cyprus EEZ and in Varosha, as well as in its efforts to secure a viable solution
>> EPP supports negotiations that would lead to a BBF in line with UN resolutions and the EU acquis
US boosting 2022 UNFICYP contributions by $5.8m
Alithia, Haravgi, Phileleftheros
Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
The US State Department has proposed raising its contribution to UN peacekeeping by some $472 million for 2022, which will include an additional $5.8 million for UNFICYP, the papers report.
The budget was submitted to Congress on Friday and provides a total of $1.9 billion to fund peacekeeping operations, as well as $300 million in arrears over the past four years. The 2022 US contribution to UNFICYP is set at $15.7 million, marking an increase of $5.8 million in comparison to the current year. In 2020, $8.7 million was allocated.
Justifying the move, the State Department notes that UNFICYP “will continue to maintain the necessary stability for the resumption of the UN-facilitated talks in Cyprus approved by the Security Council within the framework of a bi-zonal bi-communal federation.”
“The mission serves US national security priorities, maintaining peace in the Eastern Mediterranean and reducing the likelihood of a wider regional conflict involving NATO allies Greece and Turkey,” it added.
The 2022 budget also includes half a million dollars for the training of Cypriot soldiers through the US International Military Training Programme (IMET). The corresponding amount for Greece is $1 million.