29th January 2010, 06:50 pm
As already announced, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Cyprus from 31 January to 2 February. The Secretary-General aims to personally show his support for the leaders’ reunification efforts, meeting with Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat individually and collectively on 1 February. While in Cyprus, he will also hold discussions with Alexander Downer and address the UN team in the country.
Below you’ll find several photographs capturing different Secretaries-General in Cyprus or meeting with Cyprus leaders.
18th January 2010, 04:52 pm
Alexander Downer spoke to Turkish Cypriot newspaper Havadis last week, an interview that appeared in the Sunday, 17 January, edition of the paper. Below are some quotes from the interview:
“[F]rom our perspective in the United Nations, we are happy with the process. I think the two leaders have been wise to move into intensive talks”.
“[I]n terms of the progress that has been made, you know we are going to be very careful in what we say about that because the leaders will certainly want to say more about the progress that has been made at end of the second round of intensive talks… But I think I am just going to say that we are happy with the way it’s been working”.
…
“[T]hese UN negotiations require that both sides adhere to a bizonal, bicommunal federation. And it is to be a federation, an arrangement whereby you have a federal government for the whole of Cyprus and two constituent state governments and two constituent states. So it’s not about divorce. The United Nations is not here to preside over the partition of Cyprus”.
…
“I would like to feel this year Cyprus will be able to, the leaders would be able to, agree on the bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. There will be a period of implementation. That the day will come when you have your federal government here; there is a President of Cyprus who is sometimes a Turkish Cypriot, sometimes a Greek Cypriot. And you have your State governments. And you suddenly realize that so much of the bitterness and the arguments of the past just mean nothing…You are able to live together in Europe, in the European Union, just like the Finns and the Irish, the Portuguese and Slovaks, they all live together; the British and Italians, or, more to the point, the British and the Germans could all live together happily, surely Turkish and Greek Cypriots can all live together happily”.
14th January 2010, 09:26 pm
The UN loves acronyms. Here’s another one: AAR — after action review. This is what we’re going to be doing for the next few days to assess how well — or poorly — we performed in planning and organizing for the three days of intensive talks earlier this week. All aspects of the operation — from the catering to facilities for the media — will be looked at to see where improvements could be made and where things worked just fine. Some journalists complained about what they felt was too much security, for example. It’s a tricky balance to strike between trying to ensure security and facilitating the media’s work. But obviously we all want adequate media coverage of these historic meetings.
The second round of intensive talks is set to start on 25 January. We shall see then how the MFR*, the FMPU*, PIO* and others have implemented the results of the AAR.
JLD
*If you ask, we’ll tell you in a future posting what these acronyms stand for.
