«Yunder other circumstances, one would expect that Ankara would do something very provocative for the fifty years since the invasion” observed a government source in Nicosia in a discussion we had the other day regarding the assessments of the Greek Cypriot side on how – and if – there is progress in the Cyprus issue.
The same source, completing her reasoning, indicated that instead of unprecedented challenges and new achievements, Turkey was limited on July 20 to repetitions, leaving at the same time a crevice of optimism, even if to see it a significant effort was needed behind the words and between the lines of what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
The Christodoulidis message
It is clear that Nicosia is currently moving on two levels: on the one hand, it wants to convince even the most cautious that it is sincerely interested in progress and a solution, and that it will continue to prove this at every opportunity and in practice by facilitating to the greatest extent the United Nations. On the other hand, his government Nikos Christodoulidis it wants to send in all directions the message that this attitude has limits, which should be understood and accepted, as it is nothing more than the rejection of any attempt to change the form of the Cyprus solution and to introduce approaches that refer directly or indirectly to the partition and/or the two states. After all, the latter is something that both the European Union and the international actor reject, strengthening Nicosia’s argument.
So what is Nicosia hoping for and where is it basing it? He hopes that the coming months will lead, albeit difficult and at a slow pace, but also with the maintenance of delicate balances, to developments which will create a more positive climate through the interaction of aspirations and interests, mainly of Ankara, in the Greek-Turkish, Cypriot and Euro-Turkish. Ankara wants to take, especially in the latter, but it will also need to give to the Cyprus problem, even if this will initially be its simple return to the dialogue table and the tacit abandonment of its out-of-frame demands for two states.
The attitude of Nicosia also facilitates Athens, which would like to deepen the Greek-Turkish rapprochement and the good climate that prevails, certainly to do everything in its power to avoid a slide into the dangerous tension of previous years. Nicosia understands this and shares it, as it also shares the statement of the Greek Prime Minister that the improvement in Greek-Turkish is to the benefit of Cyprus as well.
Nicosia – and Athens, of course – point in this direction as well, that the new approach to Nicosia-Athens relations is based on honesty and mutual understanding. In simple Greek, this means that Nicosia understands that the help of Athens, however generous it remains, also goes through the suffering of reality, logic and magnitudes. And that the two capitals must help each other in a spirit of prudence and realism.
They hope for new initiatives
Nicosia, therefore, hopes that the invitation of the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres within the month of August for a meeting in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, will lead to the undertaking of new and intensive initiatives on the part of the international organization which in the next few months will bring some results. Turkey is giving, by all accounts, some indications that its real attitude may change if it gets what it is asking for. Of course, the big question remains as to what these will be, but also what she is willing to give. But for that we will have to wait a little longer.
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