Burcu: Map outlining territorial adjustments ‘no longer valid’
A CONTROVERSIAL map outlining how much land President Mustafa Akıncı was willing to give up to the Greek Cypriot side in his quest to seal a solution has been “withdrawn”, his spokesman announced on Thursday.
Barış Burcu said the territorial adjustments, put forward just over a year ago, were no longer valid after a United Nations official removed the map from a vault at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and returned it to Mr Akıncı in December, in the presence of his negotiating team. The exchange of maps
in January last year between Mr Akıncı and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades — who is facing a leadership run-off vote in South Cyprus tomorrow — was seen as a breakthrough in the ultimately doomed talks between the two men.
Mr Akıncı was heavily criticised at home, however, with the then prime minister Hüseyin Özgürgün along with Serdar Denktaş and Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, deputy prime minister and foreign minister respectively at the time, saying the swap had been a mistake and that Mr Akıncı had not consulted the government prior to the handover.
The document was brought back to the island by the head of the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General, Sergiy Illarionov, at the request of Mr Akıncı.
“Mr Illarianov picked up the map from Geneva and delivered it personally to President Akıncı,” Mr Burcu said. “So there are currently no proposals on territorial adjustments on the table.”
He defended the decision to withdraw the map, pointing out that the Greek Cypriot side had already “withdrawn all its proposals” made at last summer’s failed Cyprus conference in Crans-Montana. Mr Burcu added that the talks had been conducted on the basis that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.
UN Cyprus spokesman Aleem Siddique confirmed the map withdrawal in response to questions from the Greek Cypriot press.
Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis said he had not given “permission” to the UN to return the map to Mr Akıncı, and commented: “A few days ago the UN called for the resumption of negotiations . . . This clearly shows which side doesn’t want the negotiations [to resume].”
Speaking yesterday Mr Özgürgün, whose National Unity Party is now the main opposition, said the map exchange had been “one of the biggest evils that could have been done to the Turkish Cypriots” and described the announcement of its withdrawal as “comical”.
However former Turkish Cypriot negotiator Ergün Olgun told Cyprus Today it was the “correct” move. Meanwhile, the foreign ministries of the TRNC and Turkey slammed a UN Security Council resolution on Tuesday which extended Unficyp’s mandate by another six months and called on the two sides of the island to “renew their commitment” to a settlement.
The TRNC said the resolution was “unacceptable” because approval for it had only been sought from the Greek Cypriot side and because of the UN’s insistence on a bizonal, bicommunal federal solution.