Monday 13 May will be a crucial day for the Cyprus problem, with three meetings in Nicosia and Ankara focusing on the outcome and developments beyond.
In Nicosia, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar will have a final round of meetings with the two leaders before leaving the island, though it is not known whether she will return soon. In Ankara, the Erdogan-Mitsotakis meeting may prove decisive (at least that is what the Cypriot government hopes) for the subsequent course of the Cyprus problem.
From what we know so far, there seems to be no prospect of breaking the deadlock on the Cyprus problem unless moves are made to help change the situation. All parties involved in the Cyprus problem, inside and outside Cyprus, agree on this. However, each side expects the other to make moves to change the facts:
α) The Greek Cypriot side expects Turkey (with the lure of progress in Euro-Turkish relations) to make a move and push Tatar back to the table,
b) Ersin Tatar insists that his conditions must be met before agreeing to enter into talks (but not negotiations), and
c) The UN and the international actors expect both sides to make moves.
Despite more than a year’s worth of clear statements from the Greek Cypriot side on the issue of moves/gestures to change the climate, it seems that neither the UN nor part of the international actors has been convinced by Nicosia’s positions. The United Nations side, with Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar as its main spokesperson, suggests that steps need to be taken by the Greek Cypriot side. What those steps should be has not been made clear.
It is noted, however, that President Christodoulides said in his statements last Thursday that during their first meeting the envoy of the Secretary-General “mentioned some ideas” and he responded with his ideas. At least in his public statements, the President avoided revealing what those ideas were. It should also be noted that President Christodoulides made it clear that “there is no question of anyone going beyond the agreed framework for a solution.”
Christodoulides’ reference is also a reminder in all directions that they all have before them an “agreed framework for a solution” from which they cannot escape. At least this is how Nicosia understands it, because foreign actors involved in the Cyprus problem and to some extent the United Nations are indirectly outlining an alternative course if it is agreed between the parties concerned.
What the United Nations and some of the international actors involved in the Cyprus problem seem to mean when they refer to gestures is not the substance of the Cyprus problem but gestures that will help to make a joint meeting, a trilateral meeting, between the two leaders and the UN side possible.negotiation table. Cyprus problem, meetings, deadlock
