Report Launch: When All Players Can Win

On December 6, 2013, GPoT Center organized the public launch of the “When All Players Can Win” report on Cyprus, written by Praxoula Antoniadou Kyriacou and Özlem Oğuz Çilsal.

The event took place on the premises of Istanbul Kültür University and was attended by approximately twenty international and local academics, students, and civil society representatives.

After GPoT Center’s Deputy Director Sylvia Tiryaki opened the meeting with her welcoming remarks, one of the authors, Praxoula Antoniadou Kyriacou, presented the ideas put forth in the booklet and answered questions from the audience.

The two authors argue that as a result of the continuing stalemate in Cyprus, neighboring countries and international partners have started to lose out on opportunities which peace and cooperation in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean could bring. According to Kyriacou and Çilsal, a win-win solution of the Cyprus problem will be the easiest to be achieved and indeed the most sustainable. The authors believe that it is important that all involved parties understand that the attainment of the common target will give rise to significant net benefits for all and that the solution will render everybody a winner. Conversely, if it is not understood that a win-win solution is the only attainable solution – and more time is wasted – then developments on the ground and in the international environment will keep making the resolution of the problem even more difficult and eventually render everybody a loser.