By Lefteris Adilinis
Meticulous planning is under way on both sides of the Green Line to forge strategy, discuss scenarios and prepare positions ahead of the Cyprus end-game, scheduled to play out over January 9-12 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The two sides have set some milestones on the road to the United Nations European headquarters, where the talks will be held.
They have agreed to discuss in Cyprus all outstanding issues, even “thorny” ones such as territory, property and guarantees.
Sources close to the leaders told the Cyprus Weekly that, in reality, the in-island talks are not expected to produce concrete results and serve more to appease sceptics.
People, mainly on the Greek Cypriot side, are concerned that there will be many aspects open when the Republic of Cyprus President, the Turkish Cypriot leader, the guarantors and possibly other international actors, start negotiations in Geneva.
The Conference
The Conference on Cyprus, where the final trade-offs will take place on January 12 in the presence of the two Cypriot sides, the guarantors and possibly other international actors, has been set to take place in Geneva.
President Anastasiades, though, has warned participants that he won’t attend the conference if Mustafa Akinci does not produce a map for territorial adjustments the day before – the last scheduled day of crunch talks between the two sides in the Swiss city.
The Greek Cypriot side is pressing for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to take part in the conference, together with a high-ranking representative of the European Union.
Turkish Cypriots and Turkey have reacted negatively to this request. Anastasiades, on the other hand, in agreement with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, is planning to ask the Security Council to put the above request to the UN Secretary General.
The issues
The Greek Cypriot negotiating team believes that security and guarantees is the only issue that can make or break the Geneva conference.
The Cyprus Weekly understands Akinci has explicitly told Anastasiades that Morphou will be returned under Greek Cypriot control.
The Turkish Cypriot reluctance to give Morphou back was the main reason for the collapse of last month’s crunch talks on territory at Mont Pelerin.
As a result, and if things go according to expectations, the two sides will be tabling similar maps for territorial adjustments before the beginning of the end-game on January 12.
UN envoy, Espen Barth Eide, has been working on a security compromise proposal, trying to find middle ground between the Greek Cypriot and Greek demand for abolishing guarantees and the Turkish Cypriot and Turkish position for continuing with the current security system.
Anastasiades and Tsipras discussed different security formulas ahead of a European Council meeting in Brussels. The Cyprus Weekly understands that the Greek Cypriot side could accept a security formula that sets a date – not very far in the future – for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island.