Recently, there have been two major events regarding the Cyprus issue – which concern two different people – but are interrelated.
One is that of U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, who recently referred to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar as ‘president’. The other is the resignation of Ambassador Andreas Mavrogiannis from the position of negotiator of the Greek Cypriot side.
Although days have passed since the U.S. Secretary of State called the Turkish Cypriot leader ‘President Tatar,’ I cannot calm down if I don’t say anything about this unacceptable happening.
Those who accept or pretend to accept the explanation have deliberately blinded themselves, in order to avoid facing the consequences. When the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs refers to Tatar as ’president’ it is not simply ‘a mistake’.
The Undersecretary has had long enough service in both the White House and the State Department to be informed about issues relating to Cyprus.
Among the other positions in which she served was as U.S. Ambassador to NATO, as well as Undersecretary of State for European Affairs!!!
So, if Mrs. Nuland does not know America’s policy on the Cyprus issue, who does?
It is also interesting that her family is close to Greek matters. Her husband Robert Kagan, the well-known commentator at the Washington Post and elsewhere, was born in Athens, and her father-in-law, Donald Kagan, was probably the most important scholar on the History of the Peloponnesian War of Thucydides.
I would like to remind you that Mrs. Nuland became internationally known when, in a telephone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, who was leaving in a few days as U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine in order to become U.S. Ambassador to Greece, dictated to him the list of ministers in Greece, noting who was likely to become prime minister and who was not.
She is therefore not at all unfamiliar with Europe and NATO, and therefore with the problems that Turkey creates in Greece, as well as the Cyprus issue itself.
She knows the situation in Cyprus very well. That she allegedly corrected her reference to Tatar, after the intervention of a journalist and a member of her entourage, she did it because she realized that she was in too much of a hurry to baptize him ‘president’, but also to avoid putting President Biden in a difficult position.
There is also that not-so-polite mention of her in European Union conversations that made the rounds of the world.
However, more revealing of the tragic situation in which the Cyprus issue currently finds itself is the resignation of Andreas Mavrogiannis from the position of negotiator of the Greek Cypriot side. What does it mean, he said, “to have a negotiator without having negotiations?”
The Turks are not negotiating. And it would be foolish of them to negotiate when others are doing their job for them, like Nuland, who has fully exposed the rationale that prevails in the U.S. State Department and consequently among other officials.
So, all this justifies Erdogan’s plans for the creation of two states in Cyprus… and instead of sounding the alarm on Hellenism, we accept blatant excuses.