Filenews 5 January 2022 - by Andreas Pibishis
Bittersweet taste was left in Nicosia by the two reports of the Secretary General of the United Nations to the Security Council, which concern the Good Offices on the Cyprus issue and UNFICYP. In the report on the developments on the Cyprus issue, three gaps are identified and the Government of Cyprus mobilised to fill these gaps before the UN Security Council resolution was prepared.
The three gaps have to do with the form of a solution, the Varosha issue and the resumption of talks. In his report on the Cyprus question, the Secretary-General of the United Nations avoids making reference to the form of a solution to the problem.
Nicosia is moving at a diplomatic level so that the text that will be prepared for approval by the Security Council will be with the gaps identified in the UNSG's report. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Christodoulides, has already begun contacts with the five permanent members of the Security Council in order to include three specific elements that are absent from the report.
The weight of the efforts is directed towards:
1. To refer to the form of a solution of the Cyprus problem, the solution of a bi-zonal bicommunal federation
2. To place more emphasis on the Varosha issue and the violations committed by the Turkish side
3. Intensifying efforts to resume talks on the Cyprus issue
At the moment there is no draft on which the Cypriot Government can work in order to achieve improvements. Its effort is directed at including the above three elements in the text of the resolution.
Indicative of the dissatisfaction that exists in Nicosia with the content of the Guterres report on the Cyprus issue are the statements of the government spokesman. Marios Pelekanos described it as regrettable that the UNSG maintains equal distance in the reports of the Good Services and the Peacekeeping Force.
In his statements, the government spokesman did not rule out the possibility that the observance of equal distances would be "in an effort of the SG to keep the window open so that the effort to resume dialogue can continue". he went on to say that "it is regrettable to keep an equal distance, since it would be more appropriate for events to be recorded as they are".
What they note on the Hill is that "the attempt to equalise" may not "discourage Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side, on the contrary, it may give the right to believe that the positions of the other side are tolerated by the SG".
The pluses of the reports noted by Nicosia include the explicit reference by the SG "to the resolutions that define the framework for the solution of the Cyprus problem, but there is also a special reference to the illegal actions in the enclosed area of Famagusta". According to the government spokesman in Nicosia, "the reports stress that the position of the United Nations regarding the enclosed area of Famagusta remains unchanged, while special reference is made to resolutions 550 and 789 concerning the enclosed area of Famagusta and the importance of full compliance with the provisions of these two resolutions is underlined by the SG".
He added that the SG expresses "his deep concern about the actions of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot community in the enclosed area of Famagusta and calls for tensions both on the ground and at sea to be avoided." Finally, Mr. Pelekanos noted that on 17 January there will be a discussion on the two reports at the level of the UN Security Council.
Parties blame the Government
At party level, the first comments on the content of the UNSG's reports came from AKEL, which points out that their content "should trouble and worry everyone and above all the government". According to AKEL, the Guterres report on the Cyprus issue "is not one of the same but a new negative development".
AKEL stresses that "at a time when the Erdogan-Tatar duo is promoting faits accomplis in Varosa and insisting on the unacceptable demand for a two-state solution, the UNSG essentially apportions equal responsibility to both sides for the impasse and stagnation on the Cyprus issue".
Furthermore, he considers as "extremely worrying is the fact that the Report does not refer either to the need to resume negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in 2017, but not even on the basis of a solution of the Cyprus problem, the bi-zonal, bicommunal federation". According to AKEL, there is a visible danger that "even achieved convergences on the Cyprus issue will become obsolete, since next to the dichotomous Turkish positions, all the "new ideas" of Mr. Anastasiades are recorded in an annex to the report, such as the notorious return to the Constitution of 60, which is also outside the framework of the UN Resolutions".
EDEK, for its part, notes that once again "through the report of the SG, equal distances are maintained and the occupying power remains untouched without consequences and consequences for its repeated illegal actions and the crimes it has committed". As EDEK notes, "this helps Turkey, which is dragging its back on its back burner and prolonging the impasse, which allows it to proceed with the imposition of its expansionist objectives".
ELAM notes for its part that "the policies of appeasement and continuous concessions, trapped in the doctrine of the 'good boy', have undoubtedly led the Cyprus issue to approaches of equal distance, which equate the victim with the perpetrator".
