“The organization of United Nations has learned its lesson and does not strive to be an arbitrary in the solution of the Cyprian problem,” says Alexander Downer, former Australian foreigh minister and current advisor to the UN general secretary, for Cyprian newspaper “Politis.” According to him, the negotiations for uniting the island are more promising than Cyprian citizen see it.

“As a foreigner, I think I have a more objective evaluation for the negotiations metween the Cyprian Greeks and Cyprian Turks. Dimitris Hristofias and Mehmed Ali Talat have done a lot of work until now. They not only work well, but also there is chemistry between the two. They have a good personal relationship and this gives me hope,” says the diplomat. He stresses that both leaders have almost come to an agreement about the executive authority in the dual sided federation and have completely agreed on the judicial authority. They have reached an agreement for the executive authority as well as for the architectonics of the legislature.

“The executive power cannot function based on the arithmetic balance, this is why the leaders need to find the golden mean, where both interests are met. Complete satisfaction cannot be sought for,” says Alexander Downer. According to him, the fact that we are discussing Cyprus as being a dual sided federation is an exception from the European right. “We know about Athens’ wish for the Turkish army to withdraw from the island. We also know about Ankara’s wish for the army to remain there, in order to guarantee the rights of the Turkish minorities on the island. We don’t know the opinion of the British government on this subject,” stresses Mr. Downer. As already known, Cyprus is a former British colony and Great Britain also wants the Cyprian problem to be solved.