Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

"When he witnessed the deadly conflict unfolding between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 1955, novelist Lawrence Durrell noted how unreal the bloodshed seemed against the background of the island's idyllic beauty. Between bouts of violence, he said, the land was "covered by the deceptive mask of a perfect spring, smothered in wild flowers and rejoicing in those long hours of perfect calm which persuaded all but the satraps that the nightmare had faded."

The killings and more than half a century have passed, but the self-deception long remained. Now the Greek Cypriot electorate - which on Sunday ousted incumbent President Tassos Papadopoulos in favor of candidates more realistic about how to find a settlement between the two sides of the divided island - has woken up to the way Cyprus's tranquility masked a recent unraveling of the predictable, if awkward, status quo. A February 24 run-off election will decide whether the new search for a solution will be under the pro-European leadership of former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, who narrowly led the poll, or Dimitris Christofias, leader of the nominally Communist party AKEL.

For three decades after Turkey's invasion in 1974, stalemate ruled. Turkish troops occupied the northern third of the island, guarding the Turkish Cypriot community, about 20 percent of the total population. Ankara would not pull out unless the Turkish Cypriots got a federated state in a new bi-zonal Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots wouldn't offer their Turkish neighbors more than minority rights in the Greek Cypriots' own unitary state. The standoff held back the Cypriots economically and hobbled Turkey's integration with the West. Yet the buffer zone is normally so quiet that United Nations peacekeepers there can afford to write nature studies about the flora and fauna that has multiplied in this overgrown no man's land.

Between 2002 and 2004, there was a heady moment of hope. The Turkish Cypriot side unilaterally opened border crossings, triggering a nostalgic rush of bi-communal visits. Turkey agreed to the UN-mediated Annan plan to withdraw its troops, backed by the United States, the European Union and, in a 2004 referendum, by 65 percent of the Turkish Cypriot voters. But this hope was extinguished when 76 percent of Greek Cypriots, urged on by Papadopoulos, voted no.

Even though Papadopoulos broke a promise to back the plan, the EU then allowed the Greek Cypriot government to join the EU as the island's sole representative. Since then, the status quo has been falling apart. Relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots are deteriorating and putting the island on course for indefinite partition. Official contacts have all but ceased, and bi-communal meetings have dried up.

Turkey refuses, against its best interests, to honor its EU obligation to open its seaports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic. A $380 million EU aid program to Turkish Cypriots is stumbling over Nicosia's refusal to acknowledge Turkish Cypriot institutions created after the 1974 invasion. Ill-will on both sides means intra-island trade is minimal. EU-sanctioned Turkish Cypriot exports through Greek Cypriot ports amounted to one shipment of aluminum scrap last year. In 2006, it totaled one shipment of Turkish Delight - or "Cyprus Delight" in EU parlance.

And while until now the conflict had few implications for the outside world, there is now a big new loser: the European Union. The EU effectively imported the Cyprus problem into its inner councils, clouding its foreign, security and trade policy. Nicosia is the principal holdout against a European consensus to support an independent Kosovo, fearing that it would be a precedent for Turkish Cypriot secession. In 2006, Greek Cypriots wielded the swing vote on EU import tariffs on Chinese shoes. Nicosia backed the protectionists apparently because of their support in the Cyprus dispute. In 2005, Greek Cypriots held up EU talks with countries in the Caucasus for six months because of a single charter flight between Azerbaijan and the Turkish Cypriot airport in north Cyprus.


At every turn, Greek Cypriots have used their EU membership to punish Turkey, notably by trying to torpedo Ankara's accession talks. The Turks, in turn, have used their membership in NATO to retaliate by blocking Cypriot and EU cooperation with the group, even in Afghanistan. Turkey is also blocking Cypriot accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and even the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

But it is not just the EU that needs to reverse the dynamics of partition in Cyprus. Turkey has to strike a deal that will ultimately ensure the withdrawal of its troops if it is to resume its stalled enlargement talks with the EU. For the Turkish Cypriots in the north, a comprehensive settlement is the only realistic way to get their full rights as EU citizens and save themselves from dependence on Turkey. It's also their best bet to rid themselves of criminal elements taking advantage of the territory's unrecognized status to launder money and smuggle illegal immigrants into the EU.

For the Greek Cypriots, a settlement is the only way to win the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island, recover at least some territory on the other side of the border for former refugees, and discourage the influx of Turkish immigrants into the north which threatens the island's demographic balance.

The Greek part of Cyprus south of Nicosia boasts shiny office buildings and showy restaurants, but all is not well. A tourism sector aimed at cheap holidays for Britons is sagging. Cyprus's membership in the EU and the euro zone means that making money off a free-wheeling offshore banking system is no longer an option. Lying 70 kilometers from the Turkish coast and 4,650 kilometers from Brussels, Greek Cypriots need normalization with Turkey if their service industries are to become an East Mediterranean hub.

All the countries in its neighborhood, even Greece, are pursuing policies of detente and cooperation with Turkey, the region's biggest and most dynamic economy. Syria, once the standard-bearer for Greek Cypriots against Turkey in the Arab and Islamic worlds, reopened a ferry route to the Turkish Cypriot port of Famagusta in October.

Cooperation instead of conflict with Turkey would provide large benefits. Greek Cypriot hoteliers could, like the Greek island of Rhodes, be filling empty rooms with newly well-off Turkish tourists. Turkey's ban on Greek Cypriot vessels has helped push the Greek Cypriot merchant fleet from fourth down to 11th in the world. Ending a sense of being a gated community in the wrong neighborhood will persuade more well-qualified young Cypriots to stay home rather than seek opportunities elsewhere.

Greek Cypriots should realize that Turkish Cypriots are growing stronger in the world and will not give up and join a unitary Greek Cypriot state. Similarly, Turks should understand that the only way to persuade Greek Cypriots to settle will be through normalization and persuasion, not threats, as when Ankara hinted at a military escalation during a 2007 oil-prospecting dispute. Once the Greek Cypriot presidential elections this month are out of the way, all sides should appeal to the UN to return to mediate a comprehensive settlement. This time, it may really be the last chance".

Hugh Pope
Tuesday 19/2/2008

[Damsi]

Mr. Pope is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World" and a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.

[Nikitas]

Who is this dude. Brussels is thousands of kilometers away, we know that, but we prefer to be in that club. By the same token Turkey should be in bed with Iran because the distance between them is ZERO kilometers. What a loada &*%$!

Bananiot, you dont have to drag the net for crap to convince us.

[Piratis]

Mr. Pope is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World" and a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.

You mean the propaganda always posted by the Turks?

It is a shame that Bananiot reposts Turkish propaganda, but we all know what his aim is.

[michalis5354]

Agree with Nikitas and Piratis there is no reason to copy and paste articles everyone can do that with no effort!

[MR-from-NG]

Mr. Pope is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World" and a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.

You mean the propaganda always posted by the Turks?

It is a shame that Bananiot reposts Turkish propaganda, but we all know what his aim is.

What is wrong with this report. It is accurate, factual and well balanced. Why gang up on Bananiot, it is the likes of him that there is hope for peace on the island.

You may not be aware Piratis but your input on the forum is nothing but propaganda, shit propaganda at that and serves no purpose other than promoting permanent division on the island.

You my friend Pissartist are a bad apple. Bad for the TCs bad for your own community.

[-mikkie2-]

"You mean the propaganda always posted by the Turks? "

Unfortunately for us, the ICC is a very influential thinktank and people take notice to what it says. Dismissing it as just Turkish propaganda is wrong. We should be taking heed and doing something to change the views of people that matter.

[Piratis]

It is Turkish propaganda at its best, right from the very first sentence:

When he witnessed the deadly conflict unfolding between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 1955

Tell me what conflict there was between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 1955?

What we had in 1955 was a straggle of the great majority of the Cypriot people against the colonialists.

The colonialists did use the Turkish minority on the island in order to deny to the native Cypriot people their freedom, but this happened only in 1957.

So don't tell me that this Turkish propaganda crap is "accurate and factual". But you are a Turk, of course you would support your own propaganda.

[Piratis]

"You mean the propaganda always posted by the Turks? "

Unfortunately for us, the ICC is a very influential thinktank and people take notice to what it says. Dismissing it as just Turkish propaganda is wrong. We should be taking heed and doing something to change the views of people that matter.

mikkie

Mr. Pope is the author of "Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World" and a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.

The ICC is as pro-Turkish as it can get. Of course it is Turkish propaganda full of lies. The Cypriots have been victims of foreign invadors who continue to occupy parts of our island, and this "Pope" is trying to defend the invadors of our island, and blame the Cypriots because they wanted their freedom on their own island!!

[MR-from-NG]

It is Turkish propaganda at its best, right from the very first sentence:

When he witnessed the deadly conflict unfolding between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 1955

Tell me what conflict there was between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in 1955?

What we had in 1955 was a straggle of the great majority of the Cypriot people against the colonialists.

The colonialists did use the Turkish minority on the island in order to deny to the native Cypriot people their freedom, but this happened only in 1957.

So don't tell me that this Turkish propaganda crap is "accurate and factual". But you are a Turk, of course you would support your own propaganda.

So Piratis, you are saying that you the GCs and us the TCs should take no notice at all of what is said on the report, it is nothing but crap, totally untrue and has no bearing to the facts. Is that correct?

One more thing, I told you before I'm a Cypriot, just like you a bloody Cypriot. Do you have a problem with that?