TRNC News Today 4th February 2014

NULAND TO COME TO CYPRUS

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State, Victoria Nuland is coming to Cyprus. Victoria Nuland will be received by President Eroğlu today (4th February 2014).

Nuland will also meet with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades today. In the announcement made regarding the visit of Nuland, expression of ‘Cyprus Government’ instead of ‘Cyprus Republic’ and expression of ‘Greek Cypriot leader’ instead of ‘President of Cyprus’ annoyed the Greek Cypriot authorities as before.

According to the Greek Cypriot press, United States of America insists on resumption of negotiations as soon as possible and wishes to take the solution process further.

NAMİ: ‘NEGOTIATIONS SHOULD START AS SOON AS POSSIBLE’

The Minister of Foreign Affairs – Özdil Nami stated that the  UN’s dialogue with both sides in Cyprus has been continuing and efforts have been made in order to overcome the difficulties regarding the joint statement.

Nami said ‘I hope these works reach a positive result in the near future. There are large masses of people in both sides of the island who wish a positive result. During his visit to Cyprus Turkish Trade Union Federation (TURK-SEN), FM Nami gave information about the latest stage reached in the Cyprus issue.

Mentioning the issue of a joint statement upon a question of a press member, Nami said that a joint statement should be made by the leaders.

Nami said ‘Negotiations should start as soon as possible without delay. I believe that is the concrete demand of both people in the island’.

Moreover, reminding that he had meetings with chambers, organizations and unions after taking over the duty of Foreign Minister, Nami pointed out that sharing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ works, vision and perspectives on a solution of the Cyprus problem is very important.

Nami also added that everyone in the country has a view on the Cyprus problem and he thinks that these views should be taken into consideration.

REACTION FROM POLITICAL PARTIES TO DECISION OF THE GREEK CYPRIOT ADMINISTRATION

The Speaker of the Republic’s Assembly – Sibel Siber, the leader of the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces, Prime Minister – Özkan Yorgancıoğlu, the leader of the Democrat Party-National Forces, Deputy Prime Minister – Serdar Denktaş and the leader of the Social Democratic Party – Cemal Özyiğit issued a joint press statement today and stated that the Greek Cypriot side could not determine the Turkish Cypriot representatives at the European Parliament. Reading out the statement at a joint press conference, the Parliamentary Speaker Sibel Siber said that the decision of the Greek Cypriot House of Representatives did not reflect nor represent Turkish Cypriot political will.  She said that the entire international community was well aware that the Turkish Cypriot people were an independent political entity from the Greek Cypriots.

“It is for this reason that the political parties who are all signatories to this statement find the implementation of the decision taken by the Greek Cypriot side for EP elections as unacceptable. The heads of the CTP-BG, DP-UG and the TDP came together today to bring to the attention of the international communities as well as relevant parties that Turkish Cypriot representation at the European Parliament can only be possible through democratic elections which reflect the political will of the Turkish Cypriot people.

ARMAN RATIP WILL GIVE A RECITAL IN LONDON

Composer–Pianist Arman Ratip will give a recital at St. James Church in London on 6th February 2014 at 7.30 pm.   Arman Ratip will meet art lovers and perform his own compositions in the recital which will be organized under the auspices of TRNC London Representative Office and with the contributions of the Turkish Cypriot Physicians Union in the UK.

Ban’s faux-pas or a case of ignoring any progress in the Cyprus problem talks?

Everyone in Cyprus rushed to put the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his place for attributing the suspension of the talks on the “change of government of the Greek Cypriot community of Cyprus.” This was considered a double faux-pas. First it was the Turkish Cypriot side that quit the talks in early 2012, because it did not want to participate in the process while Cyprus had the EU presidency and second, he referred to the Republic as “the Greek Cypriot community”.

He was bound to provoke a knee-jerk reaction with these slips, as the Greek Cypriot political parties gratefully seize any opportunity to read significance into them and have a dig at the UN. The government also reacted to avoid accusations that it had ignored Ban’s “provocative” comments. Foreign Minister – Ioannis Kasoulides, who had instructed the Cyprus permanent representative at the UN to make demarches, said, “I wonder how many years of service a Secretary-General needs to know the member-states of the UN.”

Having shown his exasperation publicly, as was expected of him, Kasoulides then allowed his common sense to do the talking. He said he felt “these matters are possibly not so clear for him (Ban) as they are for those who deal directly with the Cyprus problem.” Ban was “dealing with very important matters,” said Kasoulides, who did not see anything suspicious behind the slip.

He was in a minority of one because all the parties identified sinister motives. The Diko leader said it was obvious the stage was being set for pressure to be applied on the Greek Cypriot side, while Evroko and Edek were convinced that Alexander Downer was behind the statement, which the Alliance of Citizens described as “provocative and unacceptable.”

How predictable that nobody focused on the substance of the Secretary-General’s statement. He said the two sides had agreed on most areas of the joint declaration and were very close. This may have been the real reason for the angry reaction to what was a genuine mistake by Ban, who has much more important and urgent issues taking up his time than the Cyprus problem. But nobody it seems is too keen on the start of talks which is why they seized the opportunity to engage in the negativity they are all familiar and comfortable with.

But how far could this abject negativity get us? Our politicians should ask themselves this question some time, instead of sitting in judgment of everyone except themselves.

Cyprus Mail

4 February 2014

Source: TRNC Public Information Office