The Greek Cypriot side is preparing intensively for the Geneva conference on Cyprus, scheduled to start on January 9, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Monday.
The preparation covers both the period leading up to the meetings, the January 9 to 11 sessions between the two sides, and the most crucial phase, the conference on January 12 with Turkey, Greece and the UK that will discuss security.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony for the transition of the Strovolos mayorship, Christodoulides said preparations will further intensify up to and including January 8, when President Nicos Anastasiades is scheduled to depart for Switzerland.
The spokesman said the meetings between the two sides’ negotiators, as well as the one or two leaders’ meetings ahead of the Geneva sessions, are “extremely important”, the hope being that progress in these will act as a catalyst for a positive outcome in Switzerland.
Also, he added, the Greek Cypriot side is preparing for the intercommunal negotiations from January 9 to 11, which will address all internal aspects of the Cyprus problem, culminating in the submission of maps for proposed territorial adjustments on the final day.
“The third phase, and the most crucial one, regards discussion of the chapter of safety and guarantees, which will begin with the conference on Cyprus on January 12,” Christodoulides said.
Asked whether political parties in Cyprus will be informed of the strategy to be deployed by Anastasiades in Geneva, Christodoulides said they will not only be informed but also hopefully, through discussion at Wednesday’s National Council session, they will “contribute to unanimous decisions that will serve the common goal of ending the occupation and reunifying our country”.
Such hope for unity and a positive contribution by opposition parties (with the notable exception of Akel, which actively and consistently backs the talks), however, seems wildly misplaced, particularly after Anastasiades has given signs of a more assertive stance toward critics at home.
In a lengthy interview to local daily Politis, which ran on January 1, Anastasiades seemed to have abandoned his strategy of appeasement and urging calm and patience, in favour of a more offensive one, calling critics out and laying his views down more clearly than ever.
In it, he said the Geneva conference will be more of a four-party conference than a five-party one, suggesting that the three guarantors will in essence be negotiating the status of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee between them and with the Republic of Cyprus, which he will be representing.
The question of whether the internationally recognised Republic, which Turkey claims has been “defunct” since Turkish Cypriots left government and constitutional order collapsed in 1963, will be present at the summit, has all but consumed pre-Geneva discourse, with critics hammering Anastasiades that he has tacitly accepted the downgrading of its status, as he will be attending the Geneva sessions as leader of the Greek Cypriot community.
“I never stopped being president of the Republic of Cyprus,” he countered.
“It is only during the intercommunal talks that I represent solely the Greek Cypriot community.”
Anastasiades also refused to draw any ‘red lines’ on security and guarantees, arguing that doing so would force “the other side” to reciprocate, both effectively committing themselves to counter-productive posturing.
He admitted to having accepted setting a date for a multi-party conference before territorial adjustments had been agreed – which he had earlier deemed a precondition – because he didn’t want the Greek Cypriot side to be blamed for the collapse of the talks.
But, he warned, if the Turkish Cypriot side fails to produce a map by January 11, “there will be no multi-party conference”.
Anastasiades did not rule out a transitional period where guarantees by Turkey – and others – and a limited number of Turkish troops would remain on the island after a solution, “as long as a reasonable expiry date is attached”.
For the first time, Anastasiades also conceded that the European Union would not be “at the table” where guarantees will be negotiated, though it will be at Geneva.
He argued that today’s opposition had raised no such concerns regarding the Burgenstock conference, referring to the March 2004 summit on Cyprus between the two sides, Greece, and Turkey (with other parties, including the EU, present but not actively engaged), which had finalised the Annan Plan.
The suggestion was that today’s opposition had forgiven then-President Tassos Papadopoulos’ transgressions because it supported his tough stance on the Cyprus problem, which was never likely to lead to a solution.
If a solution were to be agreed and put to a popular vote, Anastasiades said elsewhere, the referendums could be held as early as June 2017.
But, he added, the approaching 2018 presidential election will not be a factor in the timeframe for a solution, as he will be available to work on the Cyprus problem until his last day in office, although if his proposed plan is rejected he will not be seeking re-election.
Anastasiades also acknowledged that he and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci decided to campaign together, should an agreed plan be taken to the people.
The president’s newfound candidness seems to have caught opposition parties off-guard.
Predictably, ruling Disy issued a statement of support, saying whether or not the Republic of Cyprus will be at the Geneva talks is a non-issue, as the agenda will feature an international treaty to which it is a signatory, and thus it could not possibly be absent.
Reaction by opposition parties came only from the Greens and nationalist Elam.
“Before the game even starts, the president has conceded an own-goal,” the Greens’ leader Yiorgos Perdikis said.
“For the first time we heard the president talk about Turkish guarantees after a solution.”
Elam leader Christos Christou said the Geneva conference is “illegal” as it aims to abolish the Republic of Cyprus.
“The whole process that will be held in Switzerland is already illegal, there are opinions by constitutional experts proving it,” he said.
“The Republic of Cyprus will not be there, and no one has been given the right to abolish it, not even its president.”
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