Cyprus reunification? Brian?

[Dr Mordrid]

This came as a bit of a surprise....

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/turkish-cypriot-foreign-minister-says-reunification-close-a-961776.html

[Brian Ellis]

I've just spent an hour in a detailed reply, Doc, and have lost it. Sorry, cannot recover it, but the gist of it was the Spiegel article is a load of ignorant bullshit based on false assumptions.

[Umfriend]

I guess that's all we needed to know LOL

[Brian Ellis]

Just as one example from today's newspaper:

As a result, the two sides’ positions are very far apart, particularly on property, territory and governance, as confirmed by Turkish Cypriot negotiator Kudret Ozersay in Kibris.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/04/04/cbms-front-and-centre/

This is a far cry from the idiotic Der Spiegel article. Let me cite the errors in just the first paragraph of it:

Negotiations to end the division of Cyprus have been ongoing for years. Now, Northern Cyprus Foreign Minister Özdil Nami tells SPIEGEL that a deal is close. And he wants Germany to help with reunification.

Sentence 1: Years? That could be 2, 3, 4 or 583 years: any self-respecting journalist would have cited a figure. In reality, the problem started 51 years ago, just 3 years after independence, with a constitutional crisis. The more formal negotiations started with Clerides-Denktash talks about 46 years ago. The most serious negotiations started after the Turkish military invasion, spearheaded by Ankara with US collusion and even Kissinger's encouragement, of the island just 40 years ago. So the sentence, although not a falsehood, deliberately misleads.

Sentence 2: "Northern Cyprus Foreign Minister" There is no such country as "Northern Cyprus". A region in the north of the Republic of Cyprus is under military occupation from an invading army but has no recognised status except from Turkey, the invaders. It has no membership of the UN, the EU or any other organisation because it simply does not exist, not even as observers. It is still part of the Republic, which cannot recognise it as an entity, other than a breakaway region with a foreign military rule. As such, it cannot have a "Foreign Minister" as it has no accreditation by any foreign country, nor any diplomatic relations anywhere in the world. It does have a pseudo-government, dictated to by Ankara, to handle the everyday affairs of the region, which is totally isolated from the world, except Turkey which has de facto annexed it, much as Crimea has just been annexed by Russia, except that the Turkish invasion was brutal with thousands of Cypriots killed and much of the land and immobile property being owned by Greek-speaking Cypriots who became refugees in their own country with their moveable property stolen, their churches desecrated and other crimes, such as rape, perpetrated by the invaders. Feelings still run high, especially among Hellenist-nationalistic parts of the Republic's population. A "deal is close"? I don't believe it will be in my lifetime. In 2004, there was a referendum on the plan sponsored by Kofi Annan. This was rejected by 76% of the citizens of the official Republic. If that referendum were to take place today, I would guess the rejection would still be in the 65-70% region, simply because people still want their lawful land and property back and no negotiations, to date, including the Annan plan, have allowed this.

Sentence 3: The UN, the EU and Greece have all made hefty efforts to broker a deal, without success. What makes the self-designated "Northern Cyprus Foreign Minister' think that Germany could do better? He has not taken into account that Germany's name is mud in the Republic because of the very hard line that the Chancellor and Finance Minister took against Cyprus when it was found that the country was in dire economic straits (perhaps deservedly so, but that's another story). How could anyone help in negotiating a settlement if their interference were resented? The man must be an insensitive comic!

[KRSESQ]

Nami: With the large untapped natural gas reserves off the coast, we could help Europe reduce its dependency on Russia.

Here's the heart of the shrubbery maze. I hear someone with a strong vested interest in those natural gas reserves trying to spark some high-level commercial interest. Perhaps trying to position himself as a "player."