A Bicommunal Cyprus Dialogue Forum is launched

Turkish Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs, Özdil Nami. Photo credits: Bruno Mariani & UNDP

UN SGSA Cyprus Espen Barth Eide: optimism growths on the possibility of Cyprus talks restarting in spring.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen visited Nicosia on Monday.

Negotiation delegations under the presidency of Turkish Cypriot negotiator Ergün Olgun and Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyannis attended the press meeting held in the Cypriot buffer zone on March 12th, 2015 to launch a dialogue forum on the Cyprus conflict.

The process to establish this forum has been supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Cyprus through its Action for Cooperation and Trust programme (UNDP -ACT).

The Cyprus Dialogue Forum issued a joint-declaration stating that the role of its participants is to support the negotiations and all efforts to reach a mutually agreed federal solution for the Cyprus conflict by acting as an open platform for dialogue.

Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide visited the island last Tuesday 17th and after meetings with Anastasiades and Eroglu which he assessed as positive declared that optimism growths on the possibility of Cyprus talks restarting in spring.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, visited Nicosia on Monday as part of his road-show to promote the Investment Plan for Europe.

On February11th 2014 (year of the 40th anniversary of the 1974 deployment of Turkish military forces to the island and the 10th anniversary of the Greek Cypriot vote against the Annan Plan), the Republic of Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiades and the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu held their first meeting under the auspices of the United Nations adopting a Joint Declaration which set then the framework of a new negotiating process, the basic principles for a settlement of the Cyprus conflict and the methodology to be followed.

The European Union welcomed then the agreement announced by both leaders on a joint declaration which intended to be a solid foundation for resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive settlement of the long-standing Cyprus conflict. The European Union declared its readiness to accommodate the terms of a settlement in line with the principles on which the Union is founded and the European Commission was keen to support the negotiations as they resume and to help the Turkish Cypriot Community to prepare for implementation of the EU acquis.

On February 27th, the same year, an exchange of visits and meetings took place, the Greek Cypriot Negotiator, Andreas Mavroyiannis, met in Ankara with Ambassador F. Sinirlioglu, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, and the Turkish Cypriot Negotiator, Kudret Ozersay, paid a visit in Greece and had a meeting with Ambassador A. Mitsialis, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece.

Anastasiades put forward a proposal to open the city of Varosha (Maraş for the Turkish) – under an international umbrella – to its lawful occupants in exchange for allowing EU trade at Famagusta port and unfreezing certain chapters in Turkey’s EU accession process. While many Greek and Turkish Cypriots, along with the international community, support this idea, although there is not an official statement, it continues to be rejected by Turkey, which insists Varosha may only be returned as part of a comprehensive settlement.

Varosha is protected by a 1984 UN Security Council resolution, which says the empty town can only be resettled by its original inhabitants. This resolution has prevented the Turkish Cypriot authorities from reopening Varosha and developing it for tourism. Varosha, the so-called last ghost city in Europe, is located beside the Eastern side of the British military facilities in Ayios Nikolaos.

On Febreruary 25^th, Nikos Anastasiades and Vladimir Putin, after held private talks in Moscow, signed a Joint Action Program between the Republic of Cyprus and Russia covering cooperation between both countries in the fields of research and technology, economy, security and defence.

Asked about the military agreement Anastasiades said that it has to do with the renewal of an existing agreement which was updated. The new agreement provides the right of the Russian fleet to get into the port of Limassol, not only for the purposes that was doing until now, but also with regard to the fight against international terrorism, international piracy, the illegal movement of narcotic drugs, illegal trade and other similar practices. He also said, in response to a follow-up question, that the agreement will not have any financial cost.

The Limassol port has borders on the British air base of Akrotiri which serves NATO operations and is a hub in the electronic military surveillance system of the alliance. Pulitzer Center-commissioned journalist Iason Athanasiadis published that the US seek a major military base on united Cyprus.

Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu met several times but the talks again reached a stalemate in the summer. By September 2014, no progress had been made, and from that point, conditions deteriorated. Near the end of September, Turkey decided to move the seismic exploration vessel Barbaros into the Republic of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the southern coast of the island, declaring that Turkey would conduct resource survey operations on behalf of the Turkish Cypriots and protect Turkish Cypriot rights to any resources found there.

Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa is a research vessel with Turkish flag and IMO number 9538103 owned by the company Turkiye Petrolleri based in Ankara and ISM managed by Polarcus DMCC, a company based in Dubai (UAE).

Turkey chose NAVTEX as a medium to claim part of Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone at sea. On 17th October 2014, Turkey's NAVTEX transmissions included a statement that part of Cyprus' EEZ was "reserved" by Turkey - an area where Nobel Energy, Total and ENI/Kogas are carrying out exploratory drilling for offshore gas.

NAVTEX is a near-global network of stations broadcasting weather and navigation data as part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) which is the United Nations' specialized agency responsible for improving maritime safety and preventing pollution from ships.

Messages are sent on a fixed schedule (with alert messages inserted as required) in English, with the local language as an option. Range is typically 200 miles from the transmitter. Messages are simple text messages, limited in length by the allocated time slots. Within each NAVAREA, each station has a unique ID letter, and different message subjects are identified by different ID letters. Authority for co-ordinating the use of frequencies for NAVTEX services worldwide was effectively delegated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to IMO.

In response, President Anastasiades withdrew from the negotiations in October 2014 and declared that the talks would not resume until the vessel Barbaros was withdrawn and Turkey ended its policy of conducting operations in the EEZ (today, the ship is moored at the port of Famagusta despite this port has been closed by the government of the Republic of Cyprus).

In January 2015, Ankara declared that its ship would remain in the EEZ until at least April unless the Turkish Cypriots were given more of a role in decisions regarding the island’s potential energy resources. Eroglu began demanding that energy issues become part of the settlement negotiations once they resumed.

The Turkish Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs, Özdil Nami, during his visit to Brussels last Monday 9th March, while complaining about the low participation of the Turkish Cypriot community in the procedures being used by the government of the Republic of Cyprus to manage the exploitation of natural resources of the island, assured that the vessel's Barbaros presence in sea waters of Cyprus obeys the request made by himself to the government of Turkey.

The Republic of Cyprus which holds exclusive rights to explore its waters stated that revenues from oil and gas exploration and production will be shared with the Turkish Cypriots only within the federal framework of a unified Cyprus.

National elections in Northern Cyprus are scheduled for April.