New Talks

The leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, namely President of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, will meet on Tuesday, February 21, in the context of the UN-led direct talks to solve Cyprus problem.

The meeting will take place at the Chief of Mission's residence in the United Nations Protected Area of Nicosia and will begin at 10:00 am local time.

Speaking after the last meeting of the two leaders, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim said that at that meeting of next Tuesday the leaders will discuss the property issue.

Futile Blame Game over Refugees Properties

LAST WEEK’S decision of the European Court of Human Rights continues to be the main issue of public debate, which is no bad thing. After all, this was a wake-up call for all Greek Cypriots who believed that their property rights would be unaffected by the passage of time and bought the politicians’ myth that a settlement was not a matter of urgency.
Unfortunately, the debate has avoided the main point of the ECHR decision, degenerating instead into a blame game. Some have blamed the decision on the lawyer/politicians who encouraged refugees to file over a thousand recourses to the European Court and thus prompting it to propose the setting up of the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) in the north. Others put the responsibility on the refugees (some 400) who applied to the IPC, thus giving it legitimacy. The hard-line politicians, who advocated that the Cyprus problem could be solved in the courts, blamed the judges of the ECHR for taking a politically expedient decision.
In a way everyone was correct. The ECHR wanted to find a way to dismiss the individual property claims of refugees after it was inundated with applications and it set up the IPC. It declared it an acceptable domestic remedy in order to block the submission of more applications. Refugees gave legitimacy to the Commission by applying for compensation, but they had no other choice under the Papadopoulos government which had no interest in pursuing a settlement; they saw the commission as their only hope of getting some compensation for their properties.
And the judges took a political decision, as many lawyer claimed, because they felt the ECHR was being abused by Greek Cypriots. They felt Greek Cypriot property claims could be settled by a political solution to the Cyprus problem, a view endorsed by President Christofias. In short, a combination of factors contributed to the decision released by the Court eight days ago.
The blame-game everyone has been engaging in for the last week is futile, but for the hard-line politicians and their patron the Church, it is preferable than having to deal with the hard choices presented to us by the decision. We either work for a settlement which would not guarantee the return of all the refugees to their homes but would ensure they would be compensated for their properties, or we surrender the occupied part of Cyprus to Turkey and hope that a maximum number of refugees would receive some compensation from the IPC. The ECHR has even placed a December 2011 deadline on applying for compensation. After this, refugees would have no legal claim to their properties in the north.
This is what our wise politicians should be discussing instead of looking for scapegoats to blame the consequences of their short-sighted policies.

Cyprus Mail - March 13, 2010

The Greek Connection

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou assured on Tuesday that the Greek government would continue to support the negotiating effort of the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus for a solution of the island`s political problem.``We will not be mere observers in this effort,`` he said in a speech before an extraordinary plenary session of the House of Representatives, attended by the state, political, religious and military leadership of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as representatives of organisations, foreign ambassadors, and media representatives from Greece and Cyprus. Papandreou said Greece would undertake initiatives, in the framework of the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries, adding that ``there is no alternative to the reunification of the island`` and ``we will not accept division.`` He said the Cyprus question was a problem of invasion and occupation, and that the aim was to terminate the military occupation, be rid of the threat it constitutes to Cypriot Hellenism, and end the drama of the relatives of missing persons.

Cyprus Problem: the negotiations

The ongoing negotiations on the Cyprus problem are almost devoid of political context. They are 'stand-alone', predominantly bureaucratic and do not reflect the political nature of the problem.
The negotiations must be complemented by a setting in a broader international context in which Turkey has a clear inducement to help achieve and implement a solution. Uncorrected, both deficiencies will derail the negotiations or lead them to a dead end. This would have serious international repercussions and a far broader impact than on Cyprus alone. The two communities in Cyprus will have to agree on the terms of an arrangement whereby they can peacefully live together and experience a common evolution. Given real political will, it should not be too difficult to quickly agree on the basic outlines of a solution, most of which could be adapted from previous proposals.