ROC TO FOLLOW EU CONSENSUS ON KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L NICOSIA 000263 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV CY SUBJECT: ROC TO FOLLOW EU CONSENSUS ON KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE REF: SECSTATE 37835 Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Jane B. Zimmerman, Reasons 1.4 ( b),(d) ¶1. (C) In response to Reftel, DCM March 23 delivered Kosovo-related points to Euripides Evriviades, MFA Political Director and former ambassador in Washington. In her demarche, she emphasized that Kosovo's independence was inevitable; it was vital the international community closely coordinate efforts to ensure a swift, peaceful, and orderly transition. Additionally, she repeated the Ambassador's earlier assurances that the Embassy would, in its public statements, combat invidious comparisons between the Kosovo and northern Cyprus situations. ¶2. (C) Evripiades reported that the UK High Commission earlier in the day had raised similar points. Cyprus would follow any consensus the EU reached in Bremen, he asserted. That said, a Kosovo "precedent" worried the RoC -- would the independence outcome not buoy separatists in Chechnya, Serb Bosnia, and Nagorno-Karabakh? France, too, was "waffling" over its stance, Evripiades added, and how Russia might vote on the Security Council was anyone's guess. Concluding, he vowed to stay in close contact with the Embassy as the Kosovo process played out. SCHLICHER