Clerides Institute’s Director Sophocleous at TEPAV Cyprus negotiation process which has recently invigorated was discussed during the meeting.

ANKARA – TEPAV hosted Michalis Sophocleous, Executive Director of Glefkos Clerides Institute based in Nicosia on Friday April 11.

The main theme of meeting was the negotiation process in Cyprus that has invigorated with the joint declaration signed by Nicos Anastasiades and Derviş Eroğlu on February 11, 2014. During the meeting the steps that could be taken so that the negotiation process does not fail as in the previous examples were discussed and it was raised that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) should increasingly be involved in the process.

Sophocleous emphasized that it was critical that Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots had met without an intermediary for the first time since 1963. Arguing that one of the most important reasons for the failure of the Annan Plan 2004 was insistent policies of international institutions, Sophocleous expressed that this time both sides had to make a stride in negotiations.

In the meeting it was stated that resolving the atmosphere of mistrust between two sides on the island was the most important step in terms of a sustainable agreement and a range of possible Confidence Building Measures was discussed to this end. It was underlined that projects had to focus on areas which may affect daily lives of common people rather than those that gather the same 200-300 people together.

Moreover it was expressed that a sustainable settlement on the island could be achieved by designing win-win scenarios for both sides rather than by impositions. It was emphasized that private sectors of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots and of Turkey and Greek should be involved into the peace-building process in order to determine areas that present key opportunities and to design projects for these scenarios. Peace process should be established as an inter-communal process without political actors and government in order to create a public support for an agreement, it was resolved.

The meeting, which is of key importance for being the first meeting in Ankara between representatives of nongovernmental organizations from both sides, was concluded with a decision to increase the mutual cooperation between Glefkos Clerides Institute and TEPAV as well as efforts to open an NGO and private sector dialogue mechanism that will function in parallel with the political channel during negotiations.