A plan for Cypriots written by Cypriots

Obviously, although the comprehensive talks for a resolution of the over 45-year-old problem of power sharing on the eastern Mediterranean island are continuing on Cyprus under "facilitating chairmanship" of Downer but both Greece and Turkey, the two motherlands of the two peoples of Cyprus, are very much interested in what’s going on there on the one hand and particularly for Turkey because of the spillover effects of the Cyprus problem on its European Union membership bid and the foreign policy complications Cyprus issue has been creating, a settlement on the island is of great importance.

While Turkey has been repeating at every opportunity its strong commitment to the Cyprus talks process that kicked off last spring three years after the collapse in 2004 of the so-called Annan plan, when Greek Cypriots rejected it in a referendum, because of a pending 2009 European Union evaluation of Turkey’s compliance with "normalization of relations with all EU member countries" and "enhancing the 1963 Association Agreement to cover all new EU members" Ñ the two conditions the EU had set to open accession talks with Ankara and which amount to Turkish recognition of the Greek Cypriot state as the "sole legitimate government" on Cyprus Ñ Turkey and Turkish Cypriots have been stressing all along the start of the latest exercise that there should be a deadline.

Meeting with the EU ambassadors in Ankara on Monday Foreign Minister Ali Babacan clearly stated that the Cyprus talks process must have a deadline, cannot be an open-ended exercise and disclosed that irrespective how long the talks continue Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots would not be able to establish full accord on everything and that at a "mature stage of talks" the United Nations must step in to breach the remaining gap between the positions of the two sides or if necessary to "fill in the blanks" in a draft settlement accord.

Cold shower from Downer
While that remark of the foreign minister and the chief EU negotiator received praise from the EU envoys, in talks with Babacan on Thursday, Downer reportedly gave a rather cold shoulder to the idea. The U.N. secretary-general’s special advisor for Cyprus reportedly recalled that one of the reasons behind the failure of the 2004 Annan plan was the insistence of the United Nations and the EU to impose a time frame on the talks and the decision of the then U.N. envoy, Alvaro de Soto, to "fill in the gaps" in the accord. According to diplomatic sources, Downer reportedly underlined that he would not accept to play further than a "facilitating role" in the talks between Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Dimitrios Hristofias; ruled out the possibility of he taking up a pen at any stage of the talks and fill in the blanks of a draft accord; and underlined that the talks should continue as much as the two leaders wished so, although there were constraints produced by the real politik on the island as well as in Turkish-EU relations. Sources said Downer expected the talks continue in the current two meetings a week speed until February, intensify and conclude sometime in early summer and referendums be held simultaneously in both sides of the island in early autumn. Otherwise, they said, Downer was worried that the entire process might fall victim to the parliamentary and presidential elections in northern Cyprus in June 2009 and February 2010 respectively.

With regard to assuming an enhanced arbitrator, mediator role and to fill in the remaining blanks that Ankara has suggested, diplomatic sources said Downer believed that the "awful mistakes" of the Annan plan process should be avoided and the plan must be "one for Cypriots written by Cypriots." "The more the two leaders meet, the more they exchange opinions, the more they will commit themselves to the text they will produce. That is a must for success in the referendums to be held simultaneously on both sidesÉ" diplomatic sources said Downer was expected to tell Babacan.