We were told that the President’s trip to Strasbourg was a resounding success; we know this because we were told so.
And if the government says they are being taken seriously in the bosom of European democracy, then who are we to deny that premise?
Dreams can come true, and why shouldn’t we allow President Christodoulides’ moment in the sun where he has the power to persuade hardened EU politicians that he’s not selling the same snake oil as his predecessor.
He gave a speech to the European Parliament, shook hands, and rubbed shoulders with senior Euro MPs to tell them he was serious about breaking the entrenched deadlock on Cyprus talks.
After the dust had settled, with no way of measuring the mood in the room, the government spokesperson assured there was momentum on Nicosia wanting an EU envoy to ruffle feathers.
Christodoulides has kept his election promise to promote his idea of a European personality to signal greater EU involvement in resuming mothballed Cyprus negotiations.
How far down the road we are to this happening, or if anybody is interested in accepting the poison chalice, is difficult to gauge.
The government is giving it a positive sell, like a car dealer trying to persuade us to buy electric even though such vehicles are out of our price range, and there is nowhere to charge them.
More importantly, we have no inclination if the Europeans are ready to buy what we are selling them, a pathway to peace without wheels or windows.
I know we are part of the EU family, but what is so special about us that Brussels would risk putting its head under the bonnet to find Turkey has sabotaged the brakes.
Europe’s longest-running conflict needs more than another diplomat with good intentions to have separate meetings with Cypriot leaders when the UN has effectively run out of steam.
The game plan seems to be that Brussels can be persuaded to coerce Turkey into mending bridges over Cyprus and become a positive force for peace.
As Ankara has no qualms about giving its NATO allies the runaround and playing hardball with Washington, it isn’t easy to comprehend how the EU will tame the bear.
It has no intention of allowing Brussels leverage over Cyprus, no matter the degree of arm twisting or honey traps.
Chasm
What isn’t in the Christodoulides – peace in our time brochure – is how the chasm has grown across the divide.
He needs to employ a magician, not a diplomat, to defrost decades of inertia that have encrusted division.
To strike while the iron was hot, the President also called the UN chief to tell him of his travels and the wonderful reception his ideas received.
Antonio Guterres had heard it all before and suggested he would attend the party if the Turkish guests agreed to attend.
Of course, nothing concrete came from the conversation except the government suggesting that more UN officials may visit in the not-so-near future.
Ironically, Nicosia hopes for Europe to show initiative when the appointment of a UN envoy for Cyprus remains pending.
While the government tried to resuscitate the peace process artificially, Turkish leader Erdogan visited the breakaway north to hammer a few more nails in the reunification coffin.
During a well-staged visit fresh from his election victory, Erdogan declared that a federal solution was dead and only recognition of the occupation would trigger a breakthrough.
In the six years since the last UN talks disaster, hardline Turkish Cypriots have taken over under the mantra of a two-state solution.
Erdogan has turned this into a mainstream view that Cypriots are separated by their differences; they are different peoples divided by culture, religion and language.
And as such, they cannot live together under one roof but in segregation with autonomous powers.
Slowly but surely, this could become the majority view on both sides of the fence, and there’s no putting that back in the box.
So, time is not on our side, but wasted time is all we have to show now.
