Filenews 26 March 2023 - by Andreas Pimpisisis, Stelios Marathovouniotis
For the British side, it is very clear that there is no other framework than the one defined by the United Nations, which is the bizonal bicommunal federation, something that the British High Commissioner, Irfan Siddiq, makes sure to repeat, speaking to "F".
He expresses his encouragement by the initiative and ideas of President Christodoulides and expresses the hope that the Turkish Cypriot side will be able to be persuaded to come to the negotiating table. At the same time, Irfan Siddiq emphasizes that within the agreed framework for a solution to the Cyprus problem there is room for new ideas. He wonders why something should be considered taboo as long as it is within the agreed framework. "If the agreed framework, as interpreted, has not worked, then we should have new ways to give the result we want," the British diplomat notes.
- On the Cyprus issue, a prolonged stalemate has been recorded for almost six years. Do you think that negotiations can be resumed?
- The position of the new President is encouraging. He has made it clear that the Cyprus issue is a priority for him. And he has thought of ways to create incentives for the other side to return to talks. All this is positive. It is not clear, however, whether this is enough, because in recent years the positions of the two sides have become increasingly far apart. Especially since Turkish Cypriots and Turkey support a two-state solution instead of the internationally accepted model of a bizonal bicommunal federation. So I think there is, for all of us, a challenge to persuade the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey to go back to the model that we all agree is the right one. And it's not clear how we're going to do that. That is, whether the motives to which the President refers will be sufficient or whether something else should be done to convince them.
I therefore believe that we are now in an exploratory phase where the President is putting forward his ideas, to the United Nations, to us and others. But it is a special period as he has just been elected, his mandate is fresh and he has his own ideas, but we also have the Turkish elections very soon. For us, although it is very important to be clear about the expectations and position of the Republic of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot community, it will not come as a big surprise if there is any hesitation on the other side to wait for a period of time until they determine their response. This is after the Turkish elections.
I think it is really important to have a very clear proposal from the Greek Cypriot side and from the international community, and I think that is what is on the table now. The President was in Brussels this week for discussions with European Union leaders and I hope that there will be more clarity about what the European Union's offer will be. I hope that as a result of this, we will be able to have a clear position from Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots. Of course, I think we will have to wait until the Turkish elections to get there.
