Russia welcomes the initiative by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to organise a five-party informal meeting on Cyprus and expresses hope that this event will allow the substantive and result-oriented dialogue to restart on different levels, says Stanislav Osadchiy, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Cyprus.
“It will require calm and scrupulous work of the sides on all levels, as well as political will and desire to achieve compromise agreements” Osadchiy says in a written statement.
He also says that his country considers “unacceptable the decision to open Varosha” adding that “any unilateral actions, violating previous UN Security Council resolutions, create additional difficulties for the resumption of negotiations process.”
The Russian Federation continues to closely follow the situation with regard to the Cyprus question, the Russian diplomat says. “Our position is well known. Someone blames us of repeating the same theses for many years” he adds.
The Ambassador emphasises that such a consistent approach is aimed exclusively at preserving all the positive things that were accumulated by the sides during sometimes difficult negotiations on the way for the unification of the island and were summarised in the agreed UN parameters and relative UN Security Council resolutions.
The current situation in the Cyprus settlement, he adds, which has been stagnating for more than three years, causes not only our concern, but also of the whole international community.
“The lack of progress in the negotiation process leads to the degradation of the situation around the island, to the emergence of faits accomplis, pushes some of its participants to unilateral actions that contradict the decisions of the UN Security Council” he notes.
We firmly believe, he adds, that it is unacceptable to doubt the relevance of the UN resolutions, which embrace the entire spectrum of the Cyprus problem, including the basis for settlement, or to allow their free interpretation.
“In our opinion, the set of the UN decisions, concerning Cyprus, which provides for the establishment of bizonal bicommunal federation with a single international personality, constitutes an optimal consensus basis for Cyprus solution for both communities of the island” the Russian Ambassador notes.
He adds that “the desire to dispute the expediency of their full observance can provoke unpredictable consequences not only for the communities, but also for the legal basis of the island’s state structure, which was fixed in the Zurich and London Agreements of 1959.”
“We welcome the initiative by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to organize a five-party informal meeting. We hope that this event will allow to restart the substantive and result-oriented dialogue on different levels. We are sure that there is no alternative for that. It is the only steady way to find mutually acceptable solutions for any matters of disputes” he notes.
Under the conditions, when the sides have serious differences in views of the island’s future, it is difficult to expect an immediate breakthrough in Cyprus settlement, Osadchiy says, adding that “it will require calm and scrupulous work of the sides on all levels, as well as political will and desire to achieve compromise agreements. After all, the final solution is in their hands.”
He also says that the Russian Federation, being a permanent member of the UN Security Council, remains committed to the modalities of solution, approved by the relevant resolutions.
“The lack of solution does not contribute to the promotion of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. We have noted repeatedly, that the best way to decrease tensions with regard to the island is to achieve a comprehensive, enduring, viable and just solution to the Cyprus problem” he notes.
The Russian Ambassador says that as a permanent member of the UN security Council and as a country traditionally maintaining close relations with the countries of the region and directly interested in preventing escalation of tensions in friendly Cyprus and around it, Russia intends to continue actively support the steps for achieving a result, which will create conditions for prosperity, stability and development of the united island to the benefit of all peoples living there.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
The Turkish side illegally opened last October part of the beach of the abandoned town of Famagusta, in violation to numerous UN resolutions.
Varosha, the fenced off section of the Turkish occupied town of Famagusta, is often described as a ‘ghost town’. UN Security Council resolution 550 (1984) considers any attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the UN. UN Security Council resolution 789 (1992) also urges that with a view to the implementation of resolution 550 (1984), the area at present under the control of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus be extended to include Varosha.
