Our View: With elections looming it’s pointless to appoint new UN envoy

The outgoing government appears to be making a new push for the UN secretary-general to appoint a Cyprus envoy just over two months before a presidential election, which does not seem to make much sense.

Twice in less than five days the same message has gone out. First President Nicos Anastasiades last Wednesday prior to a social meeting he had with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar at a UN event, and again from government spokesman Marios Pelekanos on Sunday.

When the president raised it, he appeared at the same time to concede that during the current period no one expects any developments given that there are elections in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey that will take us well into next year.

Pelekanos tried to spin it a bit by saying a UN envoy was needed to “prepare the right ground” so that we can take the next step immediately after the elections in Turkey, the last one on the calendar at the end of June 2023.

Without suggesting any ulterior motives on the part of the outgoing government, but heading into an election that shows the Cyprus issue light years behind where it was five years ago, and with the Turkish side now laying claim to Varosha, this might be a cause of concern to a good chunk of voters.

Having a UN envoy appointed on the other hand might look as if there was some movement. Even if in reality it would be meaningless, it could be seen as a ‘development’.

However, it’s hard to see what any UN envoy could do in the next six months to ease the path to new negotiations given the stance of the Turkish Cypriot side and Ankara that there will be no new talks without equal sovereignty or without negotiations for two separate states.  The Turks as things stand simply will not come to the table even if the UN appoints ten Cyprus envoys.

Clearly UN chief Antonio Guterres sees no point at present in appointing anyone. Otherwise he would have done so. He’s merely keeping a toe in the water.

He sent UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Miroslav Jenca in July and November this year but clearly nothing has changed.

Pelekanos on Sunday appeared to dismiss Jenca’s visit saying that while it’s good that there was some involvement by such a senior official, having our very own envoy is the only way forward to prepare for talks.

Even if we were to assume the stars will align in the ‘Nicosia-Athens-Ankara triangle’ and that everyone involved was willing to go to new talks following their respective elections, there is no need for six months of shuttle diplomacy beforehand to plan a conference. All it would take would be goodwill from all parties.

But given that the two sides have taken polar opposite positions it would not matter whether a UN envoy needed six days, six weeks, six months or six years to prepare the ground unless one or the other side does a complete U-turn on its positions.