President Christodoulides is looking into some ideas for CBMs, that need further fine-tuning
The Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) on everyday issues which President Nikos Christodoulides is now considering aim at creating a positive climate, sending messages about his will and readiness to further contribute to efforts underway for the resumption of the negotiations on the Cyprus problem, diplomatic sources have told CNA.
They added that the aim is for these CBMs to bear results and that some of them will be promoted, once they are finalized and agreed upon by the two sides, through the bicommunal technical committees, some of which are currently not running at full speed and capacity due to the stance of the Turkish Cypriot side.
President Christodoulides is looking into some ideas for CBMs, that need further fine-tuning, the sources said, adding that the President believes that a positive agenda must be maintained and engaging in a blame game must continue to be avoided.
As regards the unilateral measures which the Republic of Cyprus will announce for the Turkish Cypriot community, the diplomatic sources said that these will definitely be announced, however this will happen when the climate is conducive for the creation of preconditions for the revival of efforts for a Cyprus settlement, with a view to give a further impetus towards this direction.
This is why while President Christodoulides was planning to announce them earlier, he did not do so, since it was considered that the Turkish provocations in the buffer zone in Pyla area and developments afterwards did not provide the proper timing for this.
The same sources noted that the unilateral measures to be announced for the Turkish Cypriot community, to which the President Christodoulides referred in an interview he gave recently to a Turkish Cypriot journalist, and the messages he sent through the positions he expressed, have caused positive reactions in the Turkish Cypriot community and are widely accepted by a large number of Turkish Cypriots who do not share Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar’s, views on the Cyprus problem.
Furthermore they said that President Christodoulides plans to put forward these issues during his meeting on Friday with the UN Secretary – General, Antonio Guterres, in New York, apart from the need for the appointment of a UN envoy for the Cyprus problem and his proposal for a more active engagement of the EU in the Cyprus question.
As regards the appointment of a UN special envoy, they said that if this takes place now then the EU-Turkish relations issue can be put forward during the European Council meeting in October and Nicosia would be able to promote in this context its position for the appointment of an EU envoy as well, otherwise the issue will put forward during the European Council meeting in December.
On Friday August 18, 2023 men of the occupation regime punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews illegally working on a road that would encroach on a U.N. controlled buffer zone.
The attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the Turkish occupied village of Arsos with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, inside the buffer zone.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
Source: CNA
