Our View: Mixed signals undermine trust in Cyprus talks

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman could not suppress his anger at the comments made by President Nikos Christodoulides on Wednesday after the March 25 parade in Nicosia. In a post on social media, he slammed Christodoulides’ comments as “inconsistent, unfounded and unserious,” claiming that “fantasy ideas are flying around, beyond the limits of possibility and reason.”

Christodoulides had said that we should “learn the right lessons, utilise the way in which our Greek brothers fought to gain their freedom,” in 1821. It was by “relying on the lessons of the struggle that we continue our effort for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.” It was unclear if the comments were calculated to provoke an angry reaction from the Turkish Cypriots or were made because he was carried away by the nationalist sentiments of the occasion.

His comments on the British bases, however, were intended to cause offence.  Asked about the Turkish Cypriots stance on the British bases, he said that “our Turkish Cypriot compatriots can have a say on the negotiation of the bases after they return to the Cyprus Republic.” This was not the kind of comment that would improve the climate and prepare the grounds for the resumption of the talks that Christodoulides claims to be his number one priority.

How does he expect to achieve this objective by causing offence to and publicly alienating the other side? It is a bizarre way of persuading the leader of the Turkish Cypriots to agree to a resumption of talks. The impression is that Christodoulides is going out of his way to make sure Erhurman does not even discuss the possibility of the resumption of talks, although he was protesting a few weeks ago when the UNSG’s personal envoy said her effort to move the process forward would resume in July. He was allegedly very unhappy about the delay and conveyed this at this meeting with Antonio Guterres in Brussels 10 days ago.

There is a consistency to the policy of mixed signals Christodoulides has adopted on the Cyprus problem. While regularly paying lip service to the need for a resumption of talks as soon as possible, at the same time, he says things that are calculated to alienate the Turkish Cypriot leadership and encourage them not to trust him. In his social post, Erhurman wrote “Christodoulides has gone from ‘let’s pick up where we left off at Crans Montana,’ to a five-point road map and then to a call for Turkish Cypriots to return to the Republic of Cyprus.”

The Turkish Cypriot leader has a point about the erratic comments by president Christodoulides which shatter any remnants of trust that might still exist. This is certainly no way to create the conditions for resumption of talks, and Christodoulides knows it.