Cyprus-Forum.com

[Talisker]

Reading CyProb threads it's tempting to think there is no possibility of a peaceful reunification of the island. I tried to find other sources to find out what the two communities think of each other, and possible ways forward towards a resolution. A major academic publication 'The Impacts of Peacebuilding Work on the Cyprus Conflict' written by Drs Maria Hadjipavlou and Bulent Kanol and published earlier this year provides some interesting reading. Interviews were conducted with individuals from both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, and with third parties involved in the Cyprus issue. The article can be accessed from:
http://www.cdainc.com/cdawww/pdf/casest ... _Pdf_1.pdf

I was intending to summarise some of the content but was somewhat concerned that because of my lack of specialist knowledge in this area some important points may be missed or stated out of context. Happily for me I found a presentation by Dr Kanol which summarises the document, or at least gives a flavour of content. I've copied and pasted below:

Motivation of involvement
- tragedy/family reasons
- personal belief systems
- curiosity about ‘the other’
- ideological beliefs/progressive political views
- isolation

Positive Elements......
- feeling of being Cypriots binds people,
- establishing friendships, learning each other’s language,
- learning how to be unbiased and break social and political taboos,
- practicing how to put oneself in the other’s shoes without fighting,
- holistic view of the conflict, and developing different and evolving views about peace and the Cyprus conflict
- in-depth dialogue ability to see the other as an equal,
- realising common goals
- learn the conflict resolution process and pass it on to others

Tangible Outputs of peace activities
- establishing camps for youth,
- establishing the trainers group
- motivated the desire to rewrite Cyprus history books for schoolchildren..

Some positive and collective social impacts
- public bi-communal activity convened by the UN at the Ledra Palace (1996)
- Common Vision document by 86 organizations and mass demonstrations by “This Country is Ours,” (2002)
- Human chain activity connecting the sides at Ledra palace
- demonstrations by women during the Clerides-Denktash dinners

Failing of peace process leading to hard feelings for TC...
- “the GCs do not perceive the TCs as equal partners”
- “mentally the GCs have an obsession against the TC identity; their main reason for living is to reduce the TCs to servitude”

....Bitter feelings prevailing for GC
- Property issue
- “Settlers”
- Turkish flag on the mountain
- The presence of the Turkish army
- ‘conspiracy theory’ of outside intervention

TC Implicit Concerns
Annan Plan, Isolation, Settlement, Equality

GC Implicit Concerns
EU, Occupation, Foreign Interference

Common Concerns
The role of Political Leaderships, Economics and Media,

The Role of Civil Society-GC
- “NGOs that do exist are usually attached to a political party or the church. NGOs are usually very small, not connected and do not last long”.
- “the role of the church has been catastrophic; they do not have the right attitude towards tolerance and reconciliation.”
- “NGOs have a lack of institutionalisation and difficulty of language. Their activities need legitimisation by the political leaders and need to be discussed in the broader society”.

Civil Society movement-GC.....
- Instrumental in the initial steps of rapprochement in the early stages of the peacebuilding process,
- ineffective when it came to actually producing influence over the process,
- loosely defined, scattered and held no real permanence.
- seized, controlled or negated by political parties and other powerful forces.

......Civil Society Movement-TC
Organized under two main platforms:
- Bi-communal activities
- the “Common Vision” platform
- “This country is ours” platform
- put aside their differences in internal economic and political issues
- join forces under the banner of “Solution and EU”
- mass demonstrations to mobilize a “yes” vote to the Annan Plan.
- created the “critical mass” needed for a real impact of the Civil society to topple an intransigent political leadership.

Bi-Communal movement
- sponsored by international organizations and facilitated by foreigners and was seen to be guided by foreign interests,
- high language skills and sophistication needed to attend “workshops”
- intellectual idealists who were bold enough to face the accusations of being “traitors” and “foreign agents” and become marginalized in their own communities.
- a joint bi-communal movement supporting the Plan could have given very different messages to all

Post Refererandum effect of Political Leadership
- Branding the peacebuilders as .......... in the GCC
- “You have elected us you can go home now!!” in the TCC

3rd parties on Bicommunal activities-positive....
- “The engagement from civil society was a movement that touched what people wanted.” ...led to a “horizontal spread” in society. “
- “These actions have led to the present day financial support from the international organisations for activities to strengthen civil society, whether on bi-communal or social issues.”
- “A number of people took the learning seriously. They applied it in their organisations and brought it into the public discourse when appropriate. In that way they built new ideas into society.”

....3rd parties commenting on Bi-communal activities-negative.....
- “They didn’t convene people; we noticed it, commented on it, but they did nothing about it.”
- “they were not thinking as a movement; they were thinking as little groups or individual groups. They did not explore all avenues for influence.”
- “most of it was opportunistic and driven by funding incentives”

.......3rd Parties Commenting on bi-communal activities
- Lack of representativity:
- Lack of linkages:
- Lack of vision and common understanding of the situation:
- Missed opportunities

Recommendations of Interviewies for Bicommunal Civil Society Actions....
- work intra-communally and develop a power-sharing culture in a multi-cultural society
- discussion of peacebuilding activities openly with more people in both societies
- set up a bi-communal TV channel
- sincere in depth dialogue based on scientific study to go deep into the issues of 1963, EOKA, TMT, etc.
- discuss the workings and functionality of solution

.....Recommendations for Bicommunal Civil society Actions
- work on grass roots and education.go to the grass roots and develop campaigns which the people can fund and feel their own
- fight together as Cypriots and realize our commonality
- organize public discussions with people with different views
- a committee to be formed and formulate a common plan and call all the groups together not to tell them what to do but recognize that we are a big movement in the society.

Conclusion and Prospects for the Future
- Solution efforts mainly concentrated at Track 1
- peacebuilding activities at lower levels showed dependence on atmosphere at Track 1

Reaching the Critical Mass
- Small public benefit “cause” organizations producing ideas and vision
- Large member based economic and occupational organizations joined by pro-solution political parties achieving the critical mass

Final Words
- Peacebuilding is a multi track process. It can’t be achieved just by Civil Society movements
- Requires incentives as well as a favourable international conjuncture.
- Need organizing activities at cross-community/bi-communal level
- Confining within single community brings danger of falling in the trap of “zero-sum”

http://www.mc-med.eu/CSSP/Events/CCSSP- ... 0Forum.ppt

My own conclusions - the longer the two communities are apart, the more entrenched the misperceptions of one another will become, and the likelihood of a peaceful reunification of the island will further recede. The communities must mix more, get to know each other again, and move forward together towards peaceful reunification. IMHO.

Regards,
Talisker

[Talisker]

Still seeking information on perceptions of Cypriot communities to each other. Found a presentation by Alexandros Lordos and Muharrem Faiz, 2005, so not absolutely current, but at least post AP. The full report 'Understanding Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot public perceptions, concerning a possible Solution to the Cyprus Problem' from which the presentation was derived can be obtained from the following link:
http://www.help-net.gr/download.htm

Figures with blue bars indicate GC perceptions, those with red bars TC perceptions.









Authors' conclusion on the above: Both communities currently tend to mistrust the intentions of the other.



Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Greek Cypriots have strong reservations about the role of Turkey and of the Mainland Turks in the whole Cyprus affair'.





Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Turkish Cypriots, in contrast, tend to believe that they need Turkey’s protection in order to be safe from “Greek Cypriot aggression”'.





Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Majorities of both communities strongly oppose the use of violence'.





Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Majorities of both communities are willing to accept a Federal Solution'.





Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Turkish Cypriots and Turkish Citizens do not vary much in their attitudes towards the Greek Cypriots'.





Authors' conclusion on the above: 'Both communities tend to agree on the necessity to limit future immigration from Turkey'.

[Kikapu]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

[Kifeas]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

Well, Eroglou the other day said that Confederation is also a Federation, or just another form of federation!

[Viewpoint]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

Well, Eroglou the other day said that Confederation is also a Federation, or just another form of federation!

You can look forward to negotiationg with him and his group of settlers if these talks fail, good luck.

[Kifeas]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

Well, Eroglou the other day said that Confederation is also a Federation, or just another form of federation!

You can look forward to negotiationg with him and his group of settlers if these talks fail, good luck.

Well, VP, we have long ago found out that neither you, nor Talat, neither Eroflou, nor his settlers do count. No one is going to bother asking you, him or any other TC as to what solution you will accept. Once Turkey is forced to make up its mind, it will simply "ask" you to accept any solution that is going to be available for her to pick up for you! Therefore, no need for you to worry on anything that is beyond you to determine!

[Talisker]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

Well, Eroglou the other day said that Confederation is also a Federation, or just another form of federation!

You can look forward to negotiationg with him and his group of settlers if these talks fail, good luck.

Well, VP, we have long ago found out that neither you, nor Talat, neither Eroflou, nor his settlers do count. No one is going to bother asking you, him or any other TC as to what solution you will accept. Once Turkey is forced to make up its mind, it will simply "ask" you to accept any solution that is going to be available for her to pick up for you! Therefore, no need for you to worry on anything that is beyond you to determine!

Which begs the question - when will Turkey realise the illegal occupation of Cyprus is no longer in its (Turkey's) own best interests? Clearly Turkey believes continued occupation provides leverage in other negotiations e.g. EU accession, but there must come a time when the ongoing problems of funding the occupation, and withstanding the derision of the international community, override any possible benefits.

[Oracle]

Interesting that 73% of GCs say they have much in common with TCs ...

... and yet only 27% of TCs totally disagree with the preposterous proposed view that "GCs are murderers" .....

What an extreme and unrealistic, paranoid and unfounded style of thinking by the TCs ...

[Viewpoint]

It is interesting to see, that one topic from the above survey that, what the majority agree from both sides is, that a BBF solution for the Cyprus problems. I wonder if everyone understand however, that BBF stands for "FEDERATION", because more often than not, the TC's have been mislead by their own leaders to believe, that BBF stands for "CONFEDERATION".

Well, Eroglou the other day said that Confederation is also a Federation, or just another form of federation!

You can look forward to negotiationg with him and his group of settlers if these talks fail, good luck.

Well, VP, we have long ago found out that neither you, nor Talat, neither Eroflou, nor his settlers do count. No one is going to bother asking you, him or any other TC as to what solution you will accept. Once Turkey is forced to make up its mind, it will simply "ask" you to accept any solution that is going to be available for her to pick up for you! Therefore, no need for you to worry on anything that is beyond you to determine!

Then you have nothing to worry about