So I just watched the statements she made after meeting Christodoulides and Tatar. Imo they are important.
After meeting Tatar she said the meeting was…constructive. She said that Tatar just reiterated his position(so two-states). She said the same after the meeting with Christodoudlides(without the hesitation). She mentioned she listened to the civil societies, the private sector and many organisations and ppl (many countries etc) in the whole island and everybody wants to move forward.
"I think the common ground is in the civil society" and we need to get the leaders to take responsibility, to listen to their people, see the support of the International community to move forward. For me that’s the most important part. I recently interacted and talkeed with people coming from several different conflicts and even though all the people I met are people committed to peace, people that want to work in peacebuilding that’s extremely hard to achieve because their vision towards permanent peace in the countries/regions are mutually exclusive(which makes their work more impressive to me). In Cyprus the common ground is not ideal but it’s there and that’s valueable. Maria couldn’t say what the common ground is but I am glad she mentioned even like that and said that the common ground is there and we need to transfer that to the leader-level as well.
https://old.reddit.com/r/cyprus/comments/1cn3zs5/important_statements_of_the_un_envoy_maria_angela/
Posted by Bran37
6 Comments
Trying to parse the diplomatic speak, but it seems probably more a bit of a win (slightly) for RoC.
“Constructive meeting” basically means nothing changed.
But the civil society comments hint at an opinion that the leaders should represent that more, which in this case I would assume RoC is doing more so than Tatar (at least within the generally accepted parameters). Also I guess what civil society orgs she met with.
Also it may indicate an avenue where the UN/EU can take a more active part in supporting these civil society orgs.
It seems like a bit of a departure from the usual balancing the leaders aspect and more focusing on the promotion of non-political drivers.
If you are more cynical, I guess you could say that it’s just giving an out to continue some kind of engagement rather than saying “shits fucked yo”
🤢
Does Tatar actually represent the TCs with his push for 2 states, or is he just parroting what he’s being told from Turkey?
She seems to be calling out Tatar to listen to his people to me. He’s the biggest obstancle here.
There will never be a top down solution. It has to start from the bottom. Property is being sold off in the occupied area to foreigners and unless Greek Cypriots cut their losses (I say this as a Greek Cypriot) there will be nothing left to reclaim.
Time to start a property commission where people across both sides can willingly and legally sell their assets to each other or be compensated for them. There shouldn’t be a need for a solution for this to happen, but this will at the very least help to address grievances and facilitate cooperation between both sides.
For those who say “but that will legalize the occupation”, I have news for you: the occupation is here to stay, legal or illegal. We have to cut our losses and move on. Once you have a property commission, start to create common ground policies, beginning with less controversial topics (e.g. natural disaster planning) and eventually move on to bigger topics such as common immigration policies. Once you’ve done that, you can begin to expand economic trade and labour between the two sides without either side feeling threatened by external labour and forces. And so on and so on, until you get to the bigger issues such as natural gas sharing. Governance should come last and at the very end, as a rubber stamp of the reality that is on the ground. At the moment the reality is one of division, and that will never change with a top down approach.
Important statements? At the moment it’s just a show to justify further presence of the UN on the island. It’s a show to keep the unification prospect on the agenda, hoping for better times, waiting for the framework conditions to change.