Cyprus talks in Geneva: the wrong format?
Representatives of Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Britain and the United Nations are to hold informal talks on the Cyprus question in Geneva from Tuesday to Thursday. The aim of the conference is to resume negotiations on a solution for the island, which has been divided since 1974. Press voices from Greece and Cyprus doubt that the meeting will produce any results.
Cyprus is not a colony
Cyprus expert Dimitris Konstantakopoulos believes the conference is doomed to fail. He writes on his website:
“If Greek and Turkish Cypriots cannot agree on a mutually satisfactory solution and approve it in a referendum, why should the powers that caused the Cyprus problem, Britain and Turkey, help to solve it? The five-way conference is absurd. ... It is not only irrational but also illegal, and contradicts the most basic international principles that emerged after the Second World War. ... Only the people of Cyprus and only the citizens of the Republic of Cyprus have the right to decide on the future of their country and their state, and to agree (or not agree) to a solution. Cyprus is not a colony.”
EU content to sit back and watch
Phileleftheros criticises lack of commitment on the part of the EU:
“An official representing not the leadership of the EU but its bureaucracy will be in Geneva, but will not attend any official meeting. ... Supposedly we are negotiating a European solution, European principles and a European acquis communautaire, and we all want to achieve a normal state of affairs. All nonsense! ... The EU's participation, even just in an advisory capacity, could help to ensure that whatever settlement is reached is in line with the basic tenets of a modern democracy. Turkey's and Britain's demand that the EU should not be there, and the fact that Guterres has accepted it, show that no one is really interested in the establishment of a 'normal state'.”