Ankara has not abandoned its Plan B based on a confederation in Cyprus, which was brought onto the agenda by the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu during one of his recent visits to North Cyprus and a meeting with Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci and political party leaders, writes Cüneyt Oruç for Turkish Cypriot daily’Star Kibris’.
Under the headline “The Greek Cypriot game is being spoiled”, Oruç refers to information published in the Greek Cypriot press regarding the UN Secretary-General Atonio Guterres’ special envoy to Cyprus – Jane Lute’s visit and the reference that Guterres’ expects an agreement to be reached between the two Cypriot communities on how they will bridge the differences in all six points of his Framework before launching the resumption of the Cyprus negotiations. The columnist interprets this as acceptance by the UN of Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay’s position that the negotiating process cannot resume from the point it has been left when it came to a deadlock. Oruç argues the following:
“[…] In a sense, this means that the Greek Cypriots could not take the negotiations to the point where they wanted to drag them on, or rather it is tantamount to the fact that the game plan of the south has been spoiled. The Greek Cypriot press, which alleges that the Greek Cypriot side wishes a meeting to be arranged with Akinci through [UNSG’s] good offices mission, argued, however, that the Turkish Cypriot side does not seem willing to do this. In fact, we had started receiving signs of this in the recent statements made by President Akinci. Although the third guarantor power, Britain, says that ‘the bi-communal bi-zonal federation is the best solution’, many things have changed.
“Even though Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu has not openly discussed the issue during his recent visit, Ankara has not abandoned its Plan B based on the ‘confederation’ that he had brought onto the agenda during his previous visit. Just like Lute’s diplomatic initiatives will not be enough for the re-establishment of the negotiating table, it does not seem that the Cyprus problem will be discussed on its old platform within the forthcoming days. We are approaching the end of a half century-long negotiating marathon. Everybody should see this and form his policy accordingly.”
Star Kibris
