YUSUF KANLI

Reshuffling political cards YUSUF KANLI

Reshuffling political cards

The developments within and related to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as well as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and İYİ Party (Good), are of great importance for the future of politics in this country. If in Turkey the maximum vote the left – or whatever that might be described as left – can get is 40 percent, and if this country is to stay in an executive presidential governance, political change can come only through conversions within the right.

September 18 2019
An analogy of UN’s last Cyprus push YUSUF KANLI

An analogy of UN’s last Cyprus push

After six rounds of separate consultations and an informal joint reception with Turkish and Greek Cypriot communal leaders, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy Jane Holl Lute conceded on Sept. 6 that two leaders were unable to agree on the terms of reference that would form the basis of new talks for a resolution of the Cyprus problem. What indeed happened before and during the latest Cyprus shuttle diplomacy of Lute?

September 16 2019
Searching to continue for Cyprus breakthrough YUSUF KANLI

Searching to continue for Cyprus breakthrough

Weeklong shuttle diplomacy efforts by Jane Holl Lute, the U.N. secretary-general’s envoy for Cyprus, ended in failure but with a pledge that efforts will continue to achieve a breakthrough on the intractable aspects of the problem that successfully defied all efforts for a resolution for the past almost 60 years.

September 09 2019
Cyprus, a hot potato YUSUF KANLI

Cyprus, a hot potato

Things are becoming clearer. Turkey may find itself compelled to make a decision on Cyprus. It will be a difficult one. Sources with knowledge of what’s going on in the latest four rounds of separate and some sort of proxy discussions between Jane Hall Lute — the Cyprus special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — and Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders say some sort of a breakthrough might become discernible regarding the reference points to be used as a guide to the revival of the long-dead federation talks.

September 04 2019
Preparing for a stillborn Cyprus initiative YUSUF KANLI

Preparing for a stillborn Cyprus initiative

Revelations from the Greek Cypriot administration regarding the compromises President Mustafa Akıncı unilaterally offered to Greek Cypriots in talks collapsed at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, two years ago may explode the already delicate relations between the center-right government and the socialist president in Northern Cyprus.

September 02 2019
Investigative journalism YUSUF KANLI

Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism is a serious business. At the Association of Journalists Press House on Aug. 28, a very exciting event was hosted. Sponsored by the European Union, the Association of Journalists, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and some other Balkan stakeholders, the 2018 EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey were granted to their recipients. Similar awards have been realized covering the entirety of the Balkans, and an award ceremony will be held in Montenegro with the participation of the winners very soon.

August 28 2019
From gunboat diplomacy to confronting rigs in Cyprus YUSUF KANLI

From gunboat diplomacy to confronting rigs in Cyprus

I have spoken with Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay on his meetings in Ankara with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior Turkish officials. Özersay and Prime Minister Ersin Tatar held some very important talks, and apart from realigning policy objectives, they successfully convinced Turkey to provide some fresh financial assistance within the framework of a recently signed economic cooperation protocol.

August 26 2019
A settlement model for Cyprus YUSUF KANLI

A settlement model for Cyprus

In northern Cyprus, there are two official positions regarding a Cyprus settlement. The president and the leftist bloc of parties vehemently argue that the best way forward is to continue seeking a federal resolution even if the Greek Cypriot left and right remain reluctant to be their companions on such a road. The two-way coalition government, on the other hand, included for the first time ever a two-state resolution of the Cyprus problem as its target. On both flanks, of course, there are further details that produce further division. Should, for example, there be a European Union roof and a prohibition that the two states should not have the right to merge with any other country, apart from the other state on the island?

August 21 2019
Yet another futile Cyprus exercise YUSUF KANLI

Yet another futile Cyprus exercise

The “social meeting” of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Aug. 9 produced yet another false hope that perhaps Cyprus talks might resume from where they collapsed in June 2016 in Crans Montana. According to some pundits, not only talks might resume soon, there might be a Cyprus deal as early as November this year. Indeed, there are even talks of a five-party conference for a final give-and-take to start on Nov. 15 and conclude the latest on Jan. 10 with a “bi-communal, bi-zonal Cyprus federation.”

August 19 2019