Property in North Cyprus – Barack Obama Outlines His Position

This November’s American election already dominates the global media, with diplomats, politicians, journalists and commentators all hanging on each twist of the would-be most powerful man on Earth’s policy and any hint, poll or rumor that suggests who might finally win.

The Cyprus reunification talks, which are now underway, are fused with the interest and support of the wider international community, but especially that of the UN, Turkey and Greece, whose input to the negotiations taking place between Demetris Christofias, of the Republic of Cyprus, and his Turkish counterpart, Mehmet Ali Talat is crucial.

The fact that Cyprus is now a member of the EU also plays a huge bearing on the reunification talks, because discussions regarding Turkey’s entry into the EU are due to officially restart next year. With Cyprus now having the right to veto Turkey’s membership, the Greek Cypriots have made no secret of their desire to see Ankara contributing to the reunification attempts – through their relationship to Talat – in a proactive and positive way.

The EU itself cannot mediate the talks because now that Cyprus is a member there would be an obvious issue with neutrality, not least because so many of the EU leaders greeted Christofias with enthusiasm and friendship following his successful election this February. For this reason the UN, who brokered the 2004 attempt at reunification – the Annan Plan – are going to play a crucial role in this current attempt at reunification. Already the UN has Alexander Downer as a special envoy for Cyprus, and the liberal, Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, seems to have proven a good choice for the role.

In the future the UN’s role may be fairly broad – from organising a PR exercise that does for civil society what Greek Cypriot state media entirely failed to do during the crucial referendum stage of the Annan plan, to running opinion polls in an attempt to foster social unison.

Addressing the UN General Assembly for the first time, Christofias described the UN as ‘an essential institution for our global survival and for the further development of humanity in a balanced and fair way in increasingly difficult conditions.’

Christofias added that the UN represented the ‘will of the international community for Cyprus to survive’ and this week Obama described his vision of this surviving little island in the east of the Mediterranean.

Obama, and his running mate Joe Biden, issued a statement this week regarding the future of the long divided island. The democrat ticket suggested that they would support a reunification plan that led to an island where ‘two communities... [are] able to exercise substantial political authority in ... [their] own geographical zone.’

The presidential hopeful went on to qualify his hopes by adding that ‘a just and mutually agreed settlement’ would be dependent on resolving those ‘difficult issues like property refugees, land and security’, which is exactly what Talat and Christofias are attempting to do during their weekly meetings which are now going on.

The international recognition of the current round of reunification talks further emphasizes the fact that a workable solution to the Cyprus issue is more graspable now than it has ever been in the past. Even the basic fact that Talat and Christofias share a left-wing ideology and appear to get on is a massive improvement on the stalled and pessimistic attitude that was allowed to fester under the five year incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos.

This means that people wondering where the best place to buy investment property is should be keeping an eye on the property market in North Cyprus, where property is far cheaper than in the Republic of Cyprus. For when reunification comes to the island, property values, which are already increasing at an unprecedented rate, will truly boom.