Cipriota: “Pronti per i colloqui anche la prossima settimana”, dichiara Christodoulidis

There is no major element that could lead to a solution today that wasn’t there in 2017.

The chances of restarting some sort of negotiations are high, the chances of finding a solution at this period are practically zero.

In 2017 the effort was to find a “solution” by pressing our side to capitulate. Today we will have far less pressure.

The authority of the UN Secretary General has been greatly diminished over the past few years so there will be far less pressure to accept whatever wrong ideas he might have. The new USA administration cares far less about NATO so screwing up Greek Cypriots for the benefit of the cohesion of NATO is no longer a major factor. Finally Israel has come to realize that having Cyprus being under Turkish dominance is not in their interests, so I am sure the Jewish lobbies will act as a counter balance to the pressure that Turkey puts on the West to “solve” the Cyprus problem in the way the Turks want.

The only negative aspect is that some Europeans (e.g. Germans) are eager to bring Turkey in their alliance against Russia and would be more eager now to close the Cyprus problem. My suggestion to Christodoulides is not to ask for a high level representative of EU this time. Greece and Cyprus are EU members and can represent the EU in the negotiations, nobody else from EU is needed.

Another suggestion to Christodoulides is to ask from Erhurman to show not in words, but in practice, that he is indeed different from Tatar, and willing and able to make the compromises needed to solve the Cyprus problem, by reversing the actions that the occupation regime took in Varosha the last few years.

Turkey will pretend to “compromise” to allow negotiations on BBF to restart (“last chance” and the usual nonsense) and maybe even increase their demands (as they usually do – if they don’t it will be a sign of weakness) while expecting from us to show our “gratitude” for them agreeing to negotiate, by freezing our military cooperation with Israel and ending our objections when it comes to Turkey participating in programs like SAFE.

Christodoulides should not fall in this trap. Noting should be given to the Turks for merely agreeing to negotiate. Anything we give should be reciprocated by Turkey with actual actions that serve our interests, such as transfer of Varosha control to the UN, or opening of the Turkish ports to Cypriot ships.