Unilateral CBMs set to be announced

Unilateral confidence building measures (CBMs) for the Turkish Cypriot community will be announced by the Republic of Cyprus, diplomatic sources told the Cyprus News Agency on Monday.

However this will happen when the climate is conducive for the creation of preconditions for the revival of efforts for a Cyprus settlement, with a view to give it further impetus.

This is why while President Nikos Christodoulides was planning to announce them earlier, he did not do so, since it was considered that the Turkish provocations in the buffer zone in Pyla area and developments afterwards did not provide the proper timing for this.

The CBMs on everyday issues aim at creating a positive climate, send a message about Christodoulides’ readiness to further contribute to efforts underway for the resumption of the negotiations on the Cyprus problem, the sources added.

Some of these measures will be promoted, once they are finalised by the two sides, through the bicommunal technical committees, some of which are currently not running at full speed and capacity due to the stance of the Turkish Cypriot side, they said.

The same sources noted that the unilateral measures to be announced for the Turkish Cypriot community, to which the President Christodoulides referred in an interview given recently to a Turkish Cypriot journalist, have been widely accepted by a large number of Turkish Cypriots who do not share Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s views on the Cyprus problem.

They said Christodoulides plans to put forward these issues during his meeting on Friday with UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres in New York, in addition to the need for the appointment of a UN envoy for the Cyprus problem and his proposal for a more active engagement of the EU.

If a UN special envoy is appointed now, the sources said, then EU-Turkish relations can be put forward during the European Council meeting in October, otherwise the issue will put forward during the European Council meeting in December.