Peace really has a chance in Cyprus, Eide says 

Peace really has a chance in Cyprus, UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said on Tuesday, expressing his optimism that there is now a genuine opportunity to solve the Cyprus problem, which the two leaders in Cyprus are actually grasping

Speaking at a the Biommunal Peace Initiative at Home For Cooperation, Eide said that “we agreed that we shall not reveal the details of the talks, and I will not start now, but what I want to tell you is that yesterday and today have probably been the best days in my current job because of the creation of this unique atmosphere of trust, and will, and leadership”.

He said that “after agreeing between the two sides on where they already stand on known issues, they have now started going into the new, complicated issues that you all know about, and they are doing that with a high degree of respect, creativity, and will to find solutions and will to understand each other, that I think is unique in Cyprus but unique in the world right now”.

“It’s very encouraging.Yesterday, a very solid leaders’ meeting; today, a meeting of the excellent negotiators, Mr. Ozdil Nami and Mr. Andreas Mavroyiannis, who also, like their leaders, have found a good tone of working together”, he stressed.

But leaders, he said, cannot change the world on their own, they need support. “And that is why I am so happy to be here with you tonight, to listen to wonderful music, to hear beautiful poetry, but also to feel the will and the spirit – among all of you – to give that support, to give that encouragement and also to demand that the leaders move on and move forward, because they need support and encouragement in the negotiation phase. Later they need support to get the ‘yes’ in future referendums, and then they will need support to implement what they agreed about”.

“This is important – it’s not easy. There will be good days and bad days, but with this kind of spirit that I feel here tonight, I think that it is almost impossible to say that peace will not come, because peace really has a chance in Cyprus,” Eide concluded.