Andreas Mavroyiannis and Kudret Ozersay, along with members of their negotiating teams, began their visit to South Africa last week.
The two chief negotiators in the UN-backed Cyprus negotiations are meeting those people experienced in negotiating the end of apartheid in South Africa. In order to learn how they approached the problem, both negotiators are attending workshops and informal meetings with those mediators.
“So far, we had meetings with two ministers and a journalist/writer. We discussed their negotiations, problems in transforming justice and local administration into a working system and merging the existing institutions of both sides and all interested parties,” Ozersay said from Johannesburg.
“My first impression is that even after 20 years of the settlement here, there is long way to go. Because resolving issues on paper may not easily help the system to be transformed into a modern one,” he added.
“There is still a very long way to go for real integration and implementation of the settlement. They reached the settlement when there was a mutually hurting stalemate. We need to see that status quo in Cyprus is not sustainable and we need to reach the point of mutually hurting stalemate to resolve it,” Ozersay concluded.
Ozersay and Mavroyiannis will also visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent much of his 27 years in prison.
Both negotiators and their teams are expected to return Cyprus on 30th April.
Famagusta Gazette
