Time for a declaration of independence
By Dr Michael Paraskos
RECENTLY we have seen incredible claims by Turkey over the right to oil and gas that is said to lie between Cyprus and Egypt. After years of proclaiming the north of Cyprus to be an independent country, it appears that the prospect of oil dollars has changed Turkey’s mind. They now say Cyprus is one country and all its citizens, north and south, should benefit from any oil discovery.
As historians will tell you, the root of Cyprus’ problem with Turkey lies in the incomplete process of decolonisation that the island underwent. Turkey has never really accepted the loss of its colonial power in Cyprus, even to the British in 1878. This is reflected in the compromises in the 1960 constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. When Britain granted Cyprus independence in 1960 it crafted a political settlement in which the island ceased to have one colonial overlord in the form of Britain, and instead gained three in the form of the guarantors: Britain, Greece and Turkey. Even today, Turkey claims a right to say whether Cyprus can join international organisations or not. The result of so-called independence in 1960 was that Cyprus stopped being the pawn of one colonial power and became the plaything of three. The island is not an independent state and never has been.
This was not the first time Britain tried to pull this trick. There are parallels with Ireland. In 1922, after a century of ignoring calls for Irish independence, Britain passed an act of parliament creating what was called the Irish Free State. Ireland was given its own government and all the trappings of an independent state, but ultimate sovereignty remained with Britain. The Irish equivalent to Makarios was Michael Collins, but unlike Makarios, Collins saw this British compromise as only a first step towards full Irish independence. In agreeing to Britain creating the Irish Free State, Collins was really aiming for a Republic of Ireland.
In Cyprus, we have failed to see Britain’s creation of a ‘Cypriot Free State’ for what it really is, a compromise that stops short of full independence. We might call ourselves the Republic of Cyprus but with three colonial powers, Britain, Greece and Turkey, still claiming the right to dictate our political system, our international relations and even, it seems, whether we can prospect for oil, we are not an independent nation. We have never declared our full independence in the way the Irish did in 1937.
In part, our failure to declare independence is born of another failure. Cypriots fail to see themselves as Cypriots. In fact this is built into our constitution so that each of us is defined as a ‘Greek’ or ‘Turk’ or ‘Armenian’ or ‘Maronite’ rather than simply as a Cypriot. We see it in our cultural life too, where elements of a unique Cypriot character in art, music and language are mocked and discarded.
There are also serious social consequences. A deep-rooted sense of dissatisfaction is embedded inside the Cypriot psyche. Every Cypriot is brought up to think of themselves as anything but Cypriot and is taught to yearn for one mother-country or another. Few have a pride in the spirit of place that is Cyprus. This longing can never be satisfied, leading to what psychologists call displacement, and out of the frustration of displacement neurotic and psychotic tendencies can develop.
In political life too, the failure of Cypriot politics is due to the lack of Cypriotness. Each side still argues for Pan-Hellenism or Takism, despite all the horror and pain this island has suffered in the name of those ideologies.
Into the midst of this, in 2004, was thrown the United Nations’ Annan Plan. It is a paradox that despite the hostility towards this plan from the majority of all Cypriots, it gave people on the island an opportunity to assert their independence for the first time in history. In true colonial style, the Annan Plan was largely the work of outsiders, but through a democratic vote Cypriots had an opportunity to declare the type of state they wanted to live in. It was a right denied to them in 1960, and the holding of this vote in 2004 set an important legal precedent. Precedents are important in law as they can be used to justify future actions. By holding a vote on the Annan Plan, the people of Cyprus claimed they had the right to decide their own constitutional structures, regardless of the wishes of our colonial guarantors in London, Athens or Ankara. In fact, by rejecting a plan that was supported by those guarantors, Cyprus enforced its sovereignty and became a true independent republic for the first time. Simply by holding the Annan vote the rights claimed by the former guarantor powers were cancelled out.
This means Cyprus became an independent republic on April 24, 2004, a date that should be celebrated from now on as ‘Cyprus Day’. The tragedy however is that our political leaders failed to follow up this historic moment by making a formal declaration of independence. This should have involved the establishment of a constitutional commission to create a new political system that would have swept away the remains of the 1960 constitution and declared Cyprus no longer subject to the whims of Britain, Greece and Turkey. References in the island’s laws to a person’s ethnic origin should also have been removed and replaced by a definition of Cypriotness.
None of this would have solved the Cyprus Problem overnight, but it would have set a framework through which a solution could be reached. In a Cyprus in which one is either a Greek or a Turk, no Turk can ever be a Greek, and no Greek can be a Turk. But in a Cyprus in which one is first and foremost a Cypriot we can all belong to this land. No more longing for Greece or Turkey, no more agonising over foreign interference, and no more Turkish warships threatening oil explorers in our waters. Just normal relations between independent states. Unfortunately, it is getting long overdue to follow up the Annan vote with a formal and unilateral declaration of such independence and the moment when we can assert our rights is slipping away. Had Michael Collins been a Cypriot I am sure he would have jumped at the opportunity. But then Collins was a visionary.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
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faskoun tzie antifascoun which roughly translates they don't know what they want.
i think pyro was spot on when he said its either the 60 agreements or an EU solution with no buts and ifs
but one thing is for sure, the tcs hold the key
