BORDERS TO OPEN
LEADERS MEET, CHECKPOINTS TO OPEN ON NOVEMBER 12
LONG-awaited border checkpoints at Derinya, near Gazimağusa, and Aplıç, near Lefke, will open on November 12, the island’s two leaders agreed yesterday when they met for formal talks for the first time in 15 months.
The UN secretary-general’s deputy special adviser, Elizabeth Spehar, hosted President Mustafa Akıncı and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades at her buffer zone residence for talks which also included other confidence-building measures of linking the sides’ electricity and mobile phone networks, yet to come to fruition four years after they were agreed by the pair.
A UN statement afterwards said the leaders had also had a “frank exchange of views on the way forward”, following the July 2017 collapse of peace talks in Switzerland, and had “confirmed their readiness to engage constructively” with UN envoy Jane Holl Lute, due to visit the island on Wednesday.
The leaders last met for an informal “tête-à-tête discussion” at Ms Spehar’s home in April.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Akıncı said they had “freely discuss[ed] the future”, and Mr Anastasiades — said recently to have backed a “loose federation” solution in hush-hush talks with Turkey’s foreign minister — had confirmed he saw “no other option beyond a bizonal, bicommunal federation”.
“However he wants to use a model of having fewer powers centralised, with more power given to the constituent states,” said Mr Akıncı.
“I stated that we cannot throw away UN parameters; cannot brush under the carpet our compromises.”
He said he would “reiterate our commitment to the agreements reached so far” when he met Ms Lute, and said of his Greek Cypriot interlocutor’s position: “What is important is how decisions will be taken. If decisions are going to be taken based on a simple majority, this is not a federation. This is a unitary state.”
He added that cross-border mobile phone use, if it could be agreed, “would indeed be a positive development in relations between the two communities”.
Mr Anastasiades confirmed he had set out his view on “decentralised powers” and said the leaders had a “common will for peace, stability, cooperation on the basis of everything discussed up to now”.
He added: “We are seeking the solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation provided this will result in a ‘functional state’.”
MR AKINCI, whose relations with Ankara were the subject of debate in Parliament this week, said yesterday he would seek to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he travels to İstanbul for the opening of the city’s third airport on Monday.
UNILATERAL Greek Cypriot attempts to exploit hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, while “ignoring” the TRNC and Turkey can “yield no result”, presidential spokesman Barış Burcu has warned.
He said there was a “requisite . . . for mutual compromise” in the region — whether in natural gas exploration or peace talks.
Mr Burcu was speaking on BRT state television on Wednesday, in the wake of tensions last week when Greek warships were reported to have confronted the Turkish seismic surveying vessel, Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, in disputed waters south-west of the island. Turkish warships were also directed to the scene.
Referring to the report presented by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Security Council last week, and due for discussion this week, Mr Burcu pointed out: “It states the need for the search for natural gas to be taken up in a manner which acts as an incentive for an overall solution, and to refrain from new tensions — something which has been reiterated by President [Mustafa Akıncı].”
Mr Burcu’s comments came a day after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency (AA) that while the Greek Cypriots “accepted” Turkish Cypriots also had rights to the island’s offshore reserves, they preferred to deal with this “after” drilling.
“There is a game being played. They have already seen that we will not allow this,” said Mr Çavuşoğlu, adding that Turkey was also surveying and drilling in the exclusive economic zone claimed by Ankara and the TRNC.
“At the end of it, both sides have rights over any reserves around the island, and they have to be shared. This is our issue.”
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar also confirmed to AA that Turkish warships had been sent in following last week’s clash, and added: “Our warships are providing the necessary protection. We will never allow a new assault. We hope our rights aren’t impeached, that respect is given to agreements and that reason prevails.
“Turkey will not allow any project which does not involve the TRNC to exist in the region . . . . [However] we are in favour of issues being resolved through peaceful discussions and not conflict.”
Turkish presidential spokesman İbrahım Kalın told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara last Friday there was a need for a “sharing model”, but the Greek side was trying to create a “de facto situation”, and declared: “No steps can be taken . . . that ignore the Turkish Cypriots. This is neither accepted by international law nor acceptable to us.”
Mr Kalın brushed off a question about Turkish plans for a new naval base near Cyprus, but said the “logistics” of Turkish forces in Cyprus coud be improved — “to better their physical conditions, to increase numbers, which is routinely done anyway”.