When the President declared, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion — already two years ago — that he was ready to make history and that, in the months ahead, he might have to take critical and courageous decisions, he clearly expected the final months of 2024 to confront him with a historic choice.
“The coming months will be critical. The coming months will be difficult. In the months ahead, we may take critical and courageous decisions. We are ready to make history and reunite our country,” the President said on the 20 of July 2024.
The Greek Prime Minister, suitably enthused, responded in kind, speaking of the “brave and bold decisions that need to be taken”.
Yet with Ersin Tatar opposite him, endlessly parroting “two states” and “separate sovereignty”, we wondered where exactly the President had found the resolve to make history in indecent haste before Santa Claus turned up at Christmas 2024. Who dares speak of making history in just a few months when the Turkish side shows no intention even of sitting down for talks?
The change in the Turkish Cypriot leadership created a new atmosphere and generated a degree of momentum. That is because Tufan Erhürman says he is determined to begin negotiations aimed at reaching a federal settlement quickly.
For that reason, he insists that negotiations must have a fixed timetable and that the sides must not reopen discussions on areas of agreement already reached. No more talking for the sake of talking. No more open-ended negotiations. Talks must proceed within a defined timeframe.
That is what he says.
Our side, however, replies: “No to timetables”, because “a timetable is an extremely sensitive issue” that “did not produce constructive results in the past”, as negotiator Menelaos Menelaou made clear.
So what does that mean?
We will make history — but without rushing?
Without a timetable?
In his speech the day before yesterday at the customary anti-occupation show at the Presidential Palace, marking fifty-two years of occupation — steady on, we mustn’t start setting timetables — the President of the Republic once again recited his red lines.
The continuation of the Republic of Cyprus is an “inviolable red line”, he said, stressing that he would not, as President, cross that inviolable red line and become “the President of partition”.
Nor, he added, would he sign any settlement that was not functional, viable and “capable of standing the test of time”.
He concluded by saying that a solution to the Cyprus problem was “his noblest ambition and his life’s solemn vow”.
So the solemn vow of our President’s life is to solve the Cyprus problem, so that he does not become the President of partition — but can continue being the President of a functional, viable and enduring half of the Republic of Cyprus.
Source: THE PRESIDENT’S SOLEMN VOW
