The two leaders attended their first social event together on Saturday night in the mixed village of Pyla, situated in the buffer zone, yet surrounded by the sounds and dance of shared history.
Zivania and smiles
It has taken around a decade for Cyprus to see such a scene of two Cypriot leaders, albeit sparring partners, sharing a round of zivania and smiles, surrounded by Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots keen to be part of the moment and the photograph too.
The leaders were all smiles for the cameras, without worrying about matching their facial expression to any stern message they might want to give. Not that politics did not show its face on the night. After all, this is politics and they are politicians. But the event achieved its goal in bringing the two leaders together, away from the boxing ring, while showing the rest of the island how Pyla does it… coexists peacefully with all its Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot flavours, warts and all.
President Nikos Christodoulides arrived first at the 6th Pyla Bicommunal Peace Festival, doing the rounds of all the stalls, while taking in the hugs and handshakes of a convoy of well-wishers.
Message of peace
“We are sending a message of peace, a message of coexistence, a message about the need, at long last, to reunify our homeland,” he told reporters.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman came next, sporting a neck brace due to back pain, without that stopping him from going through dozens of handshakes, hugs and the occasional olive branch, while even having a dance at some point.
The festival was filled with Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but also foreign residents of the village.
Seated at the top table near the stage, Christodoulides and Erhürman were flanked by Pyla’s two mukhtars, Simos Mytides and Veysal Güden, their negotiators, Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana, UNFICYP head Khassim Diagne, AKEL leader Stefanos Stefanou, Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Sıla Usar İncirli – who may well be the next ‘prime minister’ in the north after the 6 December elections – and former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and his wife Oya Talat. Nearby sat more officials from AKEL and CTP.
The two leaders sat together, drank together, and even got food together from the buffet table. They heard music familiar to both and watched a bicommunal dance group reflect through its movement and song the shared history of the island and its people.
The people
Their hosts, the community leaders of Pyla, were the epitome of grace and dignity, giving their speeches in their native tongues and in English, while thanking each other and the UN for helping to make the event happen for the first time in seven years.
Pyla’s Greek Cypriot community leader Simos Mytides said: “Our community, Pyla, stands as a powerful example that Greek and Turkish Cypriots can coexist, work together and build relationships based on mutual respect and understanding. Pyla is living proof that peaceful and harmonious coexistence is possible.”
His Turkish Cypriot counterpart Veysal Güden noted that the two communities have lived together in Pyla for centuries.
“We choose to live in peace rather than in conflict,” he said.
The politics
The leaders met on the day that UN Personal Envoy María Ángela Holguín sent a message, published by Politis, calling on both leaders to start working together and exploring co-existence based on political equality. The envoy questioned how they could end decades of division without managing to open a single crossing point or agree on demining. Prior to her arrival in Cyprus at October’s end, Holguín called on the leaders to sit down and agree on confidence-building measures (CBMs) and the rules of a future dialogue (methodology). Progress towards a resumption of talks depends on it, she noted.
Invited by a reporter to comment, Christodoulides said Holguín had very recently sent him a detailed email, to which he replied with a detailed response. After the last National Council meeting, following up on his conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York, the president said he also wrote the UN chief a letter setting out very specific ideas on methodology, substance, and CBMs to move the process forward.
He said he hoped his meeting with Erhürman next week will see progress.
And then in a clear dig at the UN envoy, Christodoulides said: “It would have been most welcome, it would have been a positive development, if Ms Holguín had been present at the many meetings I had with the Turkish Cypriot leader, so that she could have had first-hand knowledge of everything that was discussed.”
On the issue of crossing points, the president said Holguín was present at the dinner hosted by Guterres in Cyprus for the two leaders “when he made a very specific proposal, which he described as a reasonable compromise”.
He added: “Ms Holguín knows very well who immediately said yes, who immediately said no, and with whom (Guterres) had a not particularly calm discussion regarding their response.”
The statement, given on arrival at the Pyla festival, did not go unnoticed by Erhürman’s circle, but people close to him passed on the message that the Turkish Cypriot leader would not respond on the day out of respect for the spirit of the event.
Meanwhile, the negotiators meet on Monday and the next leaders meeting is due on Tuesday.
Watch this space.
