By Yusuf KANLI
TDN - Ahead of the planned July 25 meeting of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders for a final review of the progress of the efforts of more than a dozen joint committees before they set a date for the start of direct comprehensive peace talks, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to meet with Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias on July 12 in Paris and with Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat on July 15 in Berlin.
The separate meetings of the secretary-general with leaders of the two sides on Cyprus, let's hope, will help Christofias understand that the aim of the process is to reach a compromise settlement that will receive approval from the two peoples of the island in simultaneous referenda, not discussing with Talat the terms of Turkish Cypriot surrender.
According to what sources with insight into what had happened during the four-and-a-half-hour long meeting of Christofias and Talat on July 1, although the two leaders have managed to issue a joint statement demonstrating that the process is "up and running," indeed both leaders act in as though they hope the other will throw in the towel and get the blame for the collapse of the process.
It was only after Talat could not see the challenge of Christofias that either they should declare a consensus that the new Cyprus state would have "single citizenship and single sovereignty" or appear in front of the media and declare the process dead that Talat gave in and resultantly agreed to the joint statement - which has landed him in serious controversy in northern Cyprus - the text of which was worded by himself.
Since the July 1 meeting, Talat has been at pains to explain to the opposition and his people in northern Cyprus that agreeing on single citizenship and single sovereignty did not mean rendering Turkish Cypriots a minority in a Greek Cypriot state and burying the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Now Talat is defending that the new state will have one sovereignty, which will be composed of sovereignty transferred to it by the two peoples of the island. He, of course, needs to find a reasonable and acceptable wording to sell to the Turkish Cypriot people how they would not become a minority in the Greek Cypriot majority if the new state would produce "one Cypriot nation."
Talat in serious difficulty:
The headache of Talat could increase in the days ahead if he fails to give a reasonable explanation for what he understood by "single sovereignty," and whether accepting that did not mean the end of the Turkish Cypriot state which he is elected to defend and promote.
Talat is now accusing the opposition of distorting the facts with the aim and intention of hurting the process. However, not only the opposition parties, but international analysts as well underline that agreeing on one nationality would mean accepting a key demand of Greek Cypriots and condemning the Turkish Cypriot people to a permanent minority status with some privileged rights.
For example, according to a report issued by Strategic Forecasting Inc., or StratFor, the July 1 statement of the two leaders "has produced deals on crucial demands of the Greek Cypriot side, paving the way for future progress on Greek terms."
The "Cyprus: A Breakthrough for the Greek Side" report of StratFor underlined that the agreement of the two leaders that the new Cyprus state would have a single Cypriot citizenship and a single sovereign entity was indeed a declaration that Talat has agreed to the crucial demands of the Greek Cypriot side. StratFor bitterly noted that "reunification still rests on the Turkish Cypriot ability to give in to all the demands of their Greek counterparts. The Greek Cypriots hold all the cards."
Furthermore, the report said that the single citizenship and single sovereignty consensus of the two leaders "illustrates just how little room for maneuver the Turkish Cypriots in the North have."
The report underlined that "Reunification on Greek terms, therefore, will see the end of the separate Turkish political entity," and concluded:
"In the end, Turkey will be in a deal-making mood on Cyprus only if it gets something in return - namely, a more favorable negotiating position regarding EU membership. Turkish Cypriots could go against Turkish interests and make a deal with their Greek counterparts without regard for Ankara's interests. That would probably necessitate severing their economic lifeline to Ankara, however. This would put them at an even greater disadvantage vis-a-vis the Greeks, who would then hold the vetoes in the international institutions as well as all the money available for the Turkish side."