One-way road: Cyprus talks

Hopes are building on the island, as well as in the international arena, that within a few months, a Cyprus deal or a preliminary framework accord might finally be reached. 

There are comments that the process has entered a one-way road leading nowhere but a settlement. What kind of a settlement? Everyone has an idea about fundamentals of a federal resolution yet, no one is sure a federation is really possible. Then, can there be a plan B? Hush up! That is a taboo for now?

Exaggerated expectations and over-blown optimism might eventually create great disillusionment. Yet, giving up hope would mean surrendering to failure, succumbing to fatalism and losing raison d'être. Balancing out cautious optimism and refusing to be carried away with either small failures or successes perhaps might be the best for a healthy psychology.

Completing some confidence building measures, whatever they might be, cannot be bad, as long as the Cyprus talks do not become hostage of the confidence building package talks or turn into a confidence building exercise. This does not mean, of course, that confidence building measures are trivial and must be avoided. On the contrary, if such a package can be implemented as a part and parcel of the overall process, with the intention of facilitating creation and enforcement of a pro-compromise deal social awareness in the two peoples of divided Cyprus, they might be most welcome.

For example, the decision of the Turkish Cypriot administration hours after the resumption of the talks on May 15 (as of midnight May 16) regarding visa requirements for travelling between the south and north was a welcome development. Not just Cypriots with both ethnicities but foreigners as well will no longer need a visa slip and a...