I'm a guy living in Switzerland, and I first heard about Cyprus' problems while visiting Greece, a few years ago. I remembered seeing on the TV a young men climbing a pole on a border to take away a Turkish flag. He was shot in the head and fell dead to the ground. I will never forget those pictures, and it did not made me think favorably of the Turkish attitude in Cyprus. (I think it's understandable to protect one's flag, but life is precious. They could simply have arrested him, what's the point of killing a person?)
Anyway, since then I learned a bit about the circumstances of the crisis (the putsh followed by the Turkish invasion and colonisation, the UN action to maintain peace between both sides). I was very hopefull that the UN would manage to organise a peaceful settlement to the crisis, and was mostly concerned with the attitude of Denktash. However it turned out that Denktash was sidelined, from outside (Turkey) and from inside (cyprus turks). But in the end the settlement was rejected by the greek people.
From what I understood, the greeks say they refused the settlement because
- the Turkish army would maintain some presence in Cyprus
- the settlers would not return to Turkey
- there would not be total compensation for the greeks who lost property during the invasion
- there was no clear plan on how the federation would have worked
Personally, I don't get it: the Turkish army would have maintained some temporary presence (considering past history, I understand that cypriotic turks would like to keep some guarantees), but once within the EU, Cyprus has nothing to fear from Turkey. Even more so as long as Turkey wants to join the EU.
As for the settlers, it seems irrealistic to expect that people will just go after 30 years of building their lives somewhere. If one truly believes that, then I don't think one is really ready to find a real-world solution.
In regards to the compensation, I think with this choice greeks will get NO compensation at all.
About the lack of a clear path to a working federation, I think it's an objection I understand and agree. But I don't think it justifies an "oxi": this referendum was the last possibility for finding a compromise to the Cyprus question, and I think most people realised it. After the people make a decision via a referendum, it's nearly impossible to overturn it. When there is only one boat to go somewhere, and we refuse to take it because we don't like it, basically it means we don't want to go there, regardless of the spoken or unspoken reasons.
I have a lot of consideration for referendums. Here in Switzerland there are dozens of them a year, the people's oppinion is constantly required. So I think it was really good to have had this referendum, because it cleared up many questions.
- cypriotic greeks prefer to have two states in Cyprus instead of having to share a state with turks living in Cyprus
- Turks living in Cyprus are ready to be in a state independent from Turkey
I think this was the last time events were in the hands of the cypriotic greek people. From now on things will go independently of what they want or not.
There will be probably two states in Cyprus. The greeks will form a greek state, independent of Greece (a land only joins another if this is in it's interests, and that's not the case for greek Cyprus), and the turks will have a state recognised by the international community, which will probably join the EU (if the greek state can join, there is no real reason the turk state cannot, and it will be difficult for Turkey to prevent that, considering the results of the referendum).
So the problem is solved, an the greeks will get what they want, a state without turkish minority (for the moment, because when both are in the EU, turks will anyway be able to go to the greek part
). This reminds me of Czech and Slovakia: both decided to form independent countries out of Czechoslovakia, and everybody was fine with it.
So my question is, do the cypriotic greeks agree that the case is settled, and that everybody can go on with their lives and put this issue behind them?
PS: I hope people are not going to simply say that as a foreigner I don't understand what's going on. I don't claim to understand what's REALLY going on, but you have to keep in mind that my opinions, true or erroneous, are probably those of most of the international community, and cannot be simply discounted with a casual "you can't understand".
