ο τελευταίος γύρος/new europe on line
Sooner or later, everybody who has worked with the 'Cyprus question' becomes tired of it.
US President Lyndon Johnson, in his letter to Turkish premier Ismet Inönü in June 1964 called it “one of the most complex problems on earth” and UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim said that Cyprus was the “most thankless and frustrating task” of his period of office. Now, it's Ban Ki-moon's turn.
Since the collapse of the power-sharing constitution in December 1963, the island has become a political graveyard for five of his predecessors as well as countless envoys, including Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton Agreement.
Since the collapse of the power-sharing constitution in December 1963, the island has become a political graveyard for five of his predecessors as well as countless envoys, including Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Dayton Agreement.
Ban Ki-moon’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, is noted for the failure of the comprehensive Annan Plan, which aimed to reunite the two communities in 2004.
Now the present round of talks, which began between the Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and the Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Ali Talat in September 2008, is on the verge of collapse.
Since November 2010, Ban Ki-moon has held five tripartite summits in an effort to find a solution, while continuing to stress that the process is Cypriot-owned and Cypriot-led and that the UN’s role is that of facilitator.
The official parameters for the talks are the two high-level agreements between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots from 1977 and 1979 and Security Council resolutions, which stipulate that the aim of a Cyprus settlement is the creation of a bi-communal and bizonal federation with a single sovereignty and citizenship.
However, doubt was cast as to Turkish Cypriot intentions, when Talat’s successor, Derviş Eroğlu, in a letter to Ban Ki-moon in April 2010 spoke of “the principle of equal sovereignty of the two peoples”.
Ban Ki-moon, in a report to the Security Council in November 2010, noted that progress has been “frustratingly slow” and identified the core issues as property and territory. The Greek Cypriots consider these issues as linked, as a discussion on the transfer of territory will solve a number of property issues.
The secretary-general concurred at the Geneva summit in January 2011 but the Turkish Cypriot side refuses to discuss this issue of territory until a mulilateral conference is convened.
Another sticking point is that of governance, where Derviş Eroğlu has reneged on the prior agreement reached between Christofias and Talat on a rotating presidency combined with a weighted cross-vote from both communities.
The chapter on citizenship also includes the issue of the vast influx of Turkish settlers since the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974, so that it will be impossible to maintain the population ratio of 4:1 as agreed in the Treaty of Establishment.
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