Andreas Mavroyiannis, the negotiator of the Greek Cypriot side in the intercommunal talks on the Cyprus issue, has said there is a possible window of opportunity to resume the stalled negotiations in April.
During a lecture at the London School of Economics on Monday evening Mavroyiannis said: “I believe that by now we have reasons to believe that this (resumption of talks) might be possible in the coming weeks, some time in April maybe, we don`t know exactly. But we might find a way forward because on the one hand the Turkish NAVTEX expires in the beginning of April and we are going to have also a break in the search being conducted by ENI. So maybe this would shape up a window of opportunity for the resumption of the talks. We will see what happens. The important thing is to stop the violations.”
Referring to Turkey’s stance, he said that “it has to realise that the settlement would create a win-win situation; but for this to happen Turkey needs to accept that Cyprus was and will remain an autonomous actor in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
“All we are trying to do is to oppose the logic of the de facto incorporation of the Turkish Cypriot community to Turkey, which was the logic presented by Erdogan in September when he came to the occupied part of Cyprus,” added Mavroyiannis.
Responding to questions by the audience and the event’s chair James Ker-Lindsay, an LSE academic, he rejected the idea of time-frames in the negotiations. “Not because we don`t want to work as speedily as possible, but because when you fix a deadline you give the impression that you if you don`t meet it, then you are going to do something alternative. As far as we are concerned, we refuse ideas about what some people call ‘velvet divorce’ or two state solution. (…) From an ethical and moral point of view I refuse to consider the future of my country in terms of division.”
However, he warned that if one wants to be realistic about timeframes, they cannot ignore some fundamental facts, the most serious of which is the political orientation of Turkey today, which he described as “really very very worrisome for all of us.” As he explained, “there is a complete change of orientation towards a progressive islamisation of the society in Turkey. We see they are not interested in modernising their society the occidental way and they are not really interested in working towards accession to the EU. And they are trying to play very dangerous games in the neighbourhood.”
For these reasons Mavroyiannis warned that “we need to rush it a bit, because if we wait a few more years there will be no Turkish Cypriot community left anymore or they will not be represented by their leadership”.
“Objectively,” he added, “a time-frame is created. We are running out of time in Cyprus. We need to do something as soon as possible.”
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Repeated UN-led round of talks have so far failed to yield results to reunite the country due to Turkish intrasigence.