The Bicommunal Peace Initiative - United Cyprus has called on the island’s two leaders to accelerate efforts towards a viable and lasting settlement, warning that the current political momentum must not be allowed to dissipate.
In a press release issued following the visit of the UN Secretary-General to Cyprus, the group said a settlement must be shaped and accepted by both communities and remain, above all, their shared responsibility.
Call for intensive dialogue
The initiative urged the two leaders to turn their stated readiness for more frequent meetings into a structured and intensive schedule of dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations.
It welcomed the leaders’ meeting scheduled for 26 August and called for the necessary preparatory work to be completed in good time, so that tangible progress can be achieved.
“The discussion of substantive issues must begin now,” the group said.
Confidence-building measures
The initiative also called for the immediate implementation of meaningful confidence-building measures, including the opening of new crossing points.
It stressed that the free movement of Cypriots should not be treated as a bargaining tool, while also calling for the reinstatement of the IMAGINE education programme and progress on other issues affecting citizens’ daily lives.
According to the group, the two leaders must agree on a mutually acceptable negotiating methodology that respects the convergences reached up to the Crans-Montana talks and the established UN parameters for a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, as defined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Regional developments
The initiative said relations between the European Union and Turkey, along with the development of natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, should be approached as factors capable of contributing positively to a more favourable political environment.
A viable and lasting settlement, it added, “must be shaped, accepted and become primarily the responsibility of the two communities of Cyprus”.
The role of the guarantor powers and the wider international community should be to facilitate, support and safeguard a Cyprus-owned settlement, rather than impose competing regional interests on the island, it said.
Role of civil society
The group described the UN Secretary-General’s visit as particularly significant because it highlighted civil society as a central part of efforts to advance the peace process.
Organised civil society groups must now strengthen their ability to mobilise the public and plan their next steps, it said, with the aim of influencing developments and placing the greatest possible pressure on the two leaders to deliver immediate results.
“We cannot allow the present opportunity to be lost. We must act now,” the initiative concluded.
