By Bilun Güneş
The founder of Cyprus Forum Dr. Nicolas Kyriakides believes the Forum’s efforts will enhance understanding and cooperation between the two communities in Cyprus.
For this year’s Forum, the goals include advancing rule of law reforms, encouraging bi-communal discussions, and launching a peace and democracy prize to honor contributions from both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
The voting for the prize will occur over two weeks, with the award presentation scheduled for October 3rd.
Mr. Kyriakides a lawyer and academic, co-founded the non-profit organization Oxygen for Democracy in 2011 to promote participatory and transparent policymaking in Cyprus. This initiative’s main project is the Cyprus Forum, launched in 2020, which aims to foster dialogue on critical issues, including the longstanding Cyprus problem, through discussions and events both locally and internationally.
Kyriakides emphasizes the importance of creating an independent platform for public discourse, distinguishing their approach from traditional think tanks or political parties. Their other significant project, Nomoplatform, serves as a parliamentary watchdog to enhance transparency and citizen engagement in politics.
While the Forum faces challenges, including a historically cold political climate between communities, it has made strides in including Turkish Cypriots in discussions by forming advisory committees and collaborating with organizations like the UN. Although attendance from Turkish Cypriots remains low, efforts continue to improve representation and foster bi-communal dialogue.
Ahead of the upcoming Cyprus Forum, Nicolas Kyriakides gave an interview to Voice Cyprus News.
How did Oxygen for Democracy and Cyprus Forum come into existence?
We started Oxygono (Oxygen for Democracy) in 2011, 13 years ago. We started it as students in the UK, and the idea behind it was that we wanted to make policymaking in Cyprus and beyond more participatory, more scientific, more transparent.
We started as a blog, and then we registered it as an NGO, and it turned to become an organisation which works towards strengthening democracy and the rule of law and its institutions. Oxygono means Oxygen in Greek. Recently we renamed it to Oxygen for Democracy so it is more clear what we want to achieve.
We wanted to do something that was unique; we didn’t want to become a think tank or a political party. We found that it would be useful to be an independent platform to bring together the different players of the public discussion. We started organising events with politicians, related to the internal affairs, and then at some point we decided to do something bigger which would have more impact.
The main project of Oxygen for Democracy is the Cyprus Forum. We saw similar initiatives abroad, like the Delphi Economic Forum in Greece, the Paris Peace Forum, and the Antalya Forum in Turkey.
We started the Cyprus Forum in 2020. We also have a smaller conference called the Cyprus Forum Cities, based on local government. Additionally we have satellite events outside of Cyprus, in London, in Brussels, in Washington.
What is Nomoplatform?
Nomoplatform is our other big project. It is a parliamentary watchdog, a parliamentary observatory per se, where we monitor everything that’s happening inside the parliament. Together with the Cyprus Forum, they are practical tools to implement our objective which is to bring people closer to politics.
How do you see these projects foster into issues of Cyprus?
Addressing the most sensitive issue, the Cyprus problem, took a lot of thought. We do not have a specific opinion on any of the topics. We just want to bring people closer to discuss and eventually come up with ideas, suggestions and solutions.
We may not be able to influence the politicians, the leaders, but we can devise practical discussions to keep the dialogue open between the two communities.
Eventually we would perhaps solve practical problems for citizens on both sides. And you never know, maybe somehow positively influence the issues on a political level.
Regarding bringing people closer to politics and creating more dialogue, what have been your observations on the impact of these efforts?
I receive this question almost every day as it’s the most important one. All these resources, time, and efforts result in outcomes that cannot be defined by the number of attendees but can be observed by monitoring the ideas and the positive initiatives that have come out because of these. I think it’s not a matter of numbers. It’s a matter of outcomes.
And I think this can happen in three levels. The first level is to inform people of what is happening. We try to do that with our discussions. For example, we started discussions about the Green Line trade and regulation four years ago when nobody was discussing this subject. We helped make this discussion mainstream by holding it at the Ledra Palace Hotel in the Buffer Zone.
This year we have a panel on technical committees. We know about their achievements, but not a lot of people know what has been achieved. In regard to bi-communal discussions, we will have a panel on the architecture of negotiations, energy cooperation discussions, and more.
The second level is to bring matters into public discussion by putting initiatives in the forefront like the Winds of Change, a project by Sophia Papamichalopoulos. She presented the projects in the Cyprus Forum three years ago. More projects at the forefront regardless of how small or large would take the attention and more people will learn about these initiatives.
The third level is to influence the decision-making. Organised discussions can be lobbied into passing laws into legislation. An example is that it is now made mandatory for lobbyists, people who engage with public officials, to be registered as lobbyists and report their meetings. This has become a tool for more transparency. We pushed a lot about this, and it passed into law two years ago. Next serious institutional problem is about the powers of the Attorney General and we are having a panel discussion on this topic at this year’s forum.
There are a few small wins, but the political landscape is very complicated and it is not easy to change things. We cannot claim success but if the overall outcome is positive, then it is better than being the same.
What issues have you faced in your efforts to bring key figures into these discussions and to include Turkish Cypriots in panels?
When we started forming the Forum back in 2019 it was only two years after Crans Montana, two years after the breakdown of the negotiations and both sides had turned a cold shoulder to each other. The political climate did not get better with the opening of Varosha in 2020 and closing of the borders due to COVID.
Given these circumstances, with all my honesty, we considered doing this Forum excluding Turkish Cypriots. When we were joined with more progressive people for the event, they encouraged the participation of Turkish Cypriots to address issues concerning the whole of the island.
We accepted that not including Turkish Cypriots would be an oversight, and we formed an advisory committee including Turkish Cypriots like Ahmet Sozen and a few others.
We started having collaborations with the UN and to have panels on commercial and business relations between the two sides. Slowly, in time, we were able to reach more people from the North. Having a Turkish Cypriot member in our team has been a huge help in getting in touch with the people and the initiatives.
Since then, the number has increased year after year however I think it is still very low. We have around 200 speakers every year, around 70 of them are from abroad and then only about 15 are Turkish Cypriots. I believe this number will grow eventually.
In our third year we started having the bi-communal discussions in the buffer zone, to help receive more conservative Turkish Cypriots to attend as well as people from Turkey. We want to include Turkish speakers in the discussions about geopolitics. It is absurd to discuss the Eastern Mediterranean without Turkey. There may not be the attendance of political people at this point, but we would like to have academics, and personalities in the field. We need to know the view of Turkey.
Terminology has also been an issue. Titles and institutions have been an issue. Greece and Turkey may have been on better terms lately, but on the island we are still suffering.
What do you aim to achieve with this year’s Forum?
In summary, we hope to achieve more progress on the rule of law front, better outcomes on the back of bi-communal discussions, and award the first peace and democracy prize. We don’t think that everything will change after one conference, it is a very slow process requiring continuous effort.
We want to put more positive pressure for further reforms in the Republic of Cyprus on the rule of law front. We think that good governance and well-functioning democracy has an influence on the quality of life of people as well as the Cyprus problem.
The Republic of Cyprus is usually positioned low in international indices about transparency. We aim to change that.
And the second is about peace discussions, about bi-communal discussions. We hope to convince more and more people to get on the same table and discuss and to listen to what the other side has to say, find synergies, and find ways to collaborate. When we were able to get chambers of commerce from both sides on the same table, we managed to see progress being made.
We are also launching a peace and democracy prize, which is going to be awarded to one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot personality, posthumously, to honour and appreciate their contributions.
We have selected eight candidates, 4 Greek Cypriots, and 4 Turkish Cypriots. Lellos Demetriades, Turkan Aziz, Xenofon Kallis, Vedia Barut, Lena Melanidou, Ozker Ozgur, Stella Stoulioti, and Tuncer Bagiskan.
The voting will be open for two weeks and the award will be granted on the 3rd of October, evening of the first day at the networking reception. We think this will help each side to learn more about the people of the other side.
More info regarding this year’s Cyprus Forum can be found at https://2024.cyprusforum.cy/
Voice Cyprus News-2024
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