Alexander Downer

Recent news reports indicate that Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias sent a letter on April 7 to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in which he sharply criticized Espen Barth Eide, the U.N. chief's special adviser on Cyprus, accusing him, inter alia, of acting to promote the interests of the Turkish side.

Over the past more-than-half-a-century of the history of Cyprus peacemaking, Greek Cypriots have been applying a rather intriguing tactic: Never accept anything, but pretend to. It takes years for international mediators to discover the mental setup of Greek Cypriots and often they start getting a realistic picture only after they are ordered to pack up and move on.

Cyprus's economic crisis could hasten a deal to end decades of enmity between the island's estranged Greeks and Turks, its outgoing United Nations envoy said on Thursday.

Reunification talks resumed between the two sides on February 11.