UN / CYPRUS

UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Alexander Downer talks to the press on the reunification of the island following elections declaring Dervis Eroglu as the new leader of the Turkish-held Northern Cyprus. UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:06
• Production Date: 27 April 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL AFFAIRS; LAW; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; POLITICAL MOVEMENTS; PEACE AND SECURITY
• Geographic Subject: CYPRUS
• MAMS Id: U100427c

Description

STORY: UN / CYPRUS
TRT: 1.06
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

DATELINE: 27 APRIL 2010, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN building

27 APRIL 2010, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Press Conference panel
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexander Downer, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus:
“We’ve had, as you quite rightly say, 71 meetings over a period of around 18 months and we would like the process to come to a conclusion sooner rather than later. We don’t want this process to become an indefinite process because if it just drags on indefinitely that constitutes a failure of the process.”
4. Med shot, Reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexander Downer, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus:
“It’s not necessarily a temporal question; it’s a political question. And there has to be the political will on both sides to solve the problems. Neither side, it’s, of course, well understood, can have exactly what they want. That’s impossible. There has to be a spirit of compromise based on a determination to achieve an agreement.”
6. Med shot, Reporters
7. Wide shot, Press Conference exit

Storyline

Alexander Downer, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, briefed reporters today on the situation in Cyprus during his one-week visit to United Nations headquarters.

Summarizing his recent mandate to Cyprus, Downer told journalists that he has conducted 71 meetings over a period of 18 months and commented that “he would like the process to come to a conclusion sooner rather than later.” He underlined that a process lasting “indefinitely” would constitute “a failure of the process.”

Downer acknowledged that the problem with reaching an agreement between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots is “a political question.” He also reminded journalists that for there to be a definitive peace, both sides must have “a spirit of compromise based on a determination to achieve an agreement.”

The UN presence on the island of Cyprus dates back to 1964, making it one of the UN’s longest running peacekeeping missions. The mandate for the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was renewed in 1974 following a Turkish military intervention.