Thanasis Photiou
Let me remind you that President Nikos Christodoulides, from the very first day of his election, threw himself body and soul into what he described as an effort to find a way to… restart the heart rhythm of the Cyprus problem through a kind of “electric shock,” so that negotiations could begin again. “We need to find a way to give the Cyprus issue an electric shock,” he would say. The President said it once; reporters and late-night analysts repeated it ten times.
Three years into his presidency, no defibrillator has been found, no electric shock has been delivered, no change in Turkey’s position or even its rhetoric has been detected, and no meaningful negotiations have taken place. In fact, we ourselves, the Greek Cypriot side, I mean, are not even entirely sure where we left things at Crans-Montana, which we supposedly want to return to, and of course, to a point other than the hotel where we happened to stay.
And yet, here we are: the Cyprus issue has apparently been revived. No electric shock required. Just like that. And not only revived, it is now even “communicating with its environment.” So much so that, apparently, we may have a settlement plan by the end of the year. “Possibly,” as the President put it while announcing the good news.
Nikos Christodoulides referred to an ongoing initiative by the UN Secretary-General, which could lead to a Cyprus settlement plan “even before the end of 2026.” He revealed that António Guterres has launched a new initiative following his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. Christodoulides said he was informed directly by the UN Secretary-General during their recent meeting in Brussels.
“I believe this new initiative will lead to developments, developments that we will all be called upon, and I first among them, to take important and possibly difficult decisions,” the President said. When asked whether we are close to a settlement plan, he replied that “we may be close to developments that could lead to a settlement plan.”
I’ll confess something, and I ask that it stays between us: I had written it off. Even if President Christodoulides had found the right defibrillator he was looking for, even if we had shocked it back to life… what could a single electric shock really do?
In fact, I had already written on this back in April 2023, saying the following: “It is important to understand that timely defibrillation can increase survival rates by 15–50%. The reason is that the condition causing cardiac arrest typically results in arrhythmias first, not immediate death. With immediate CPR and defibrillation within the first five minutes, the chances of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), and therefore survival, increase significantly.” And I went on to note: “Key words? ‘Timely’ and ‘immediate.’ The Cyprus problem is now 49 years old (since 1974, as we count it) and 59 years since the UN first referred to it in a resolution. The negotiation process has been in a coma for six years. So, could the ‘patient’ really be revived with a shock in such a condition?”
What can one say? Perhaps nothing other than “Great art Thou, O Lord, and wondrous are Thy works.”
Am I a cardiac surgeon? No. But even those who are, are they really in a position to answer how this suddenly came back to life, like spring arriving out of nowhere, as Sophia Vossou might sing? And without any electric shock?
How did the possibility of a settlement plan emerge by the end of the year? A child with a lily, perhaps. But a settlement plan without negotiations?
I am not a cardiac surgeon, as I said. Nor am I a man of the cloth. So what else can I call it but a miracle, something divinely sent?
Revival and a settlement plan by the end of the year… meaning within the next six months. Do you realize what kind of timeframe that is? Even a fashion designer couldn’t get ready in time for a cosmic event like that.
And yet, we are told this is happening “away from the spotlight.” A behind-the-scenes initiative, as the President says, manages to reveal both the visible and the invisible.
And this initiative, we are told, may lead to something very specific, and we may be called to make decisions. Not just decisions, but “important and possibly difficult decisions.”
At this point, when we are witnessing nothing short of a resurrection, should we really be worrying about whether the decisions are difficult?
