Cyprus Talks: Restarting negotiations seemed highly unlikely - Akıncı

Turkish Cypriot president, Mustafa Akıncı has said that the Turkish Cypriot side will continue to work for a settlement based on political equality by remaining committed and faithful to convergences reached so far.

Akinc’s words came during a press conference organized following his meeting with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar who met with both leaders on Friday ahead of her visit to New York where she will be briefing the UN Security Council.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar said that she had discussed the upcoming events ahead, primarily ber upcoming trip to the United States.

I’ll be leaving tomorrow evening (Saturday); I’ll be going to Washington where I’ll be speaking with American officials in federal government about how they see the situation in Cyprus and the role of the UN going forward. I’ll also be in New York, of course, very importantly, to meet senior officials of the United Nations, including the Secretary-General. I will be meeting with the members of the Security Council ahead of the very important meeting that will take place in the Council, which is the Security Council briefing that I will give on Cyprus, that is [on the] 23rd of January in the afternoon, and soon after that we expect that the Security Council will decide on the Resolution which always comes out twice a year, with respect to UNFICYP renewal and other related matters, she said.

Stating that her trip to New York was extremely important, Spehar said;

I hope that as always the Security Council will continue to give its very, very strong support to the two leaders, to the two sides and to the peace process, and of course, I hope they will continue to be supportive of our role in facilitation and maintaining calm and stability in Cyprus.

Speaking at the press conference following Spehar’s departure Akıncı told reporters that he never expressed the view that the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus should leave Cyprus but pointed out that the continued presence of UNFICYP on the island provided the Greek Cypriot side reassurance.

This situation he added did not contribute to reaching a settlement.

I don’t have an expectation for UNFICYP to leave the island but I do believe that UNFICYP’s mandate should be reviewed. As I pointed out that the continued presence of UNFICYP in its current state only serves to preserve the status quo and I would like to stress that this does not contribute to achieving a solution in Cyprus one bit, he added.

He stated that he had once again conveyed to the UN Special Representative the Turkish Cypriot side’s position regarding the Cyprus Problem, Akıncı said that the Greek Cypriot side’s most recent actions which aimed at ignoring the political equality of the Turkish Cypriot side were unacceptable.

This is one of the biggest blows being dealt towards efforts to reach a settlement. We wanted the UN Secretary General to be informed of our sensitivities on this issue, he stressed.

Pointing out that they too will receive UNFICYP’s report, Akıncı said that they will be passing on their views on the matter to New York once they look at the report.

Touching on prospects of restarting negotiations, Akıncı said that it seemed highly unlikely, particularly from the guarantor countries’ perspective, for any new talks to start before the end of March.

He also said that he did not see the Greek Cypriot side to be in any rush.

As the Turkish Cypriot side we are against the idea of restarting a new open-ended process without any timetables, just for the sake of holding talks. A new open-ended process would only bring with it new disappointments and exasperation, Akıncı added.

Pointing out that the Greek Cypriot side was trying to back out of convergences reached to this day, President Akıncı said;

We conveyed to the UN Special Representative that we are expecting the UN Secretary General to show more interest on the Cyprus Problem in the period ahead.

BRTK