Some of you will say HOP BALLA what's all about again .
Some of you were talking about Annan plan and giving some ideas .
here it is some Analysis for u ...... to pour some benzin over the fire !
In its main articles, the Annan Plan confirms that Cyprus belongs to both
Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and reminds that both sides were the
partners of the established state in 1960. In addition to these, the Plan aims to
guarantee that the past events will not repeat and intents to build a relationship
based on political equality (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Main articles of the Foundation Agreement).
Basic Articles
According to the UN Plan, “United Cyprus Republic is an independent
and sovereign state with a single international legal personality and a federal
government and consists of two constituent states, namely the Greek Cypriot
State and the Turkish Cypriot State” (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article:1).
The Common State:
The common states’ legislative power would be formed by two parts; the
Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Among each constituting states equal
number of Senators will be represented whereas Chamber of Deputies would be
formed according to proportion of population. On the other hand, the chair
number of each constituting states will not be less than ¼ of the total chair
number (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article: 5,
par.1).
Being a part of Federal Parliament, in the Chamber of Deputies, deputies
would participate according to the ratio of population, however the number of deputies which would be chosen by northern part shall be at least 1/3
proportion. In other words, Federal Parliament would have 12 representatives
from north and 36 representatives from south. (The Annan Plan, articles 10-22)
Decisions made by the Common State depend on both chambers
proportion of simple majority. On some certain matters, voted by Senators, 2 out
of 5 special majority would be taken into consideration (The Annan Plan,
Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article: 5, par.1b ).
The executive power of the Common state would be exercised by the
Presidential Council. It would constitute of 6 members chosen from single list
through special majority of Senate and should be approved by majority of
Chamber of Deputies.
Distribution of membership of Presidential Council would be made
according to the proportion of population of each constituting state. It is desired
that decisions would be taken according to majority. But in case where majority
could not be achieved, unless specified in another way, with at least one
participant from each constituent state decision would be taken by simple majority (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article: 5,
par.2b).
The members of Council have equal voting rights and the Council shall
decide the distribution of departments between its members. The heads of
departments of external relations and EU relations should not be presented by
the same constituent state (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation
Agreement, Article: 5, par.2c).
President and Vice-president of the Council will be chosen among Council
members for a 10 month period. And in addition to this, neither the President
nor the Vice-president would have a veto-right (The Annan Plan, Appendix A:
Foundation Agreement, Article: 5, par.2d).
“The Central Bank of Cyprus, the Office of the Attorney-General and the
Office of the Auditor-General shall be independent” (The Annan Plan,
Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article: 5, par.3).
The Supreme Court will constitute equal number of judges from each
constituent state and three non-Cypriot judges (The Annan Plan, Appendix A:
Foundation Agreement, Article: 6, par.2). And it shall, inter alia manage the
relationship between the common state and the constituent state.
In short, the common state would be in charge of external relations and EU
relations, in addition to monetary policy, currency, Central bank regulations,
budget, indirect taxations, economic and commercial policies, meteorology,
aviation, international navigation, continental shelf, territorial waters, water
resources, national resources12, citizenship, communications, struggle for
terrorism, drug smuggling, and other organized crimes, would be under the
responsibility of the Common State- within the boundaries of the Constitution
(Efegil, 2003:26-27).
The Constituent States
In the first two versions of the Annan Plan, status of the states’ were
defined with the term ‘component state’, which was never used before for
organic structures like federation and confederation on judicial grounds
(Toluner, 2003:30). In addition ‘sovereignty’ of these “component states” was
defined with the term ‘sovereignly’ (The Annan Plan, p.8, article 2, par.1c)
instead of ‘sovereignty’. This kind of a statement does not express a meaning for
the international law (Sönmezoğlu, 2003:11). In the last version of the Plan, the
expression of ‘component state’ was changed with the term ‘constituent state’.
As emphasized earlier, the UN Plan, offered two ‘constituent states’ and a
‘common state’. Like the Belgian system, constituent and common states “were
not placed in a hierarchical relationship” (Dodd, 2004:8). The constituent states
would be free to exercise their own authority and functions that the Constitution
did not took in charge of the common state, within the boundaries of the
Constitution. Some of these functions were comprised of; tourism, industry,
agriculture, fishery, trade, sports, education, health, labor etc.
Security and Demilitarization
The 1960 Treaty of Guarantee would stay in force mutatis mutandis to the
new state of affairs (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation Agreement,
Article: 8, par.1). This seems that the article gives the right to Greece, Turkey
and United Kingdom to act together if possible, guarantee that the security
functions are fulfilled. Turkey’s guarantee can be considered as a vital interest
for the Turkish Cypriots. Despite this reality, Turkey’s status as a guarantor would become non- proccessable (The Annan Plan, p.12, Article 8, par.1.) due to
the indefiniteness of the guarantee system (Toluner, 2003:30).
The Turkish contingent shall be reduced from 30.000 to 6.000 till 2011, and
gradually within 10 years should not exceed 650 ranks (The Annan Plan, p.12,
Article 8, par.1b). Since demilitarization of the island leaves 650 Turkish, 950
Greek troops and two British military bases, these troops will be settled in each
constituent state’s respective areas (The Annan Plan, Appendix A: Foundation
Agreement, Article: 8, par.1). UNFICYP shall act as a monitoring power through
the implementation of this agreement. In addition to demilitarization,
exportation of weapon was prohibited (The Annan Plan, Appendix A:
Foundation Agreement, Article: 8, par.2).
With respect to these, upon the demand of Greek Cypriot government,
United Nations shall be responsible of the security all over the island (Efegil,
2003:31). The common state and the constituent states would be able to posses
their own police organizations. Common State’s police will be formed with
equal number of personnel from each constituent state (The Annan Plan,
Appendix A: Foundation Agreement, Article: 15, par.3).
Territorial Adjustments:
In the Annan Plan, according to Cyprus Map A: Turkish-held area will be
decreased from 37 % to 28 %. Therefore, with the Annan Map, 23% of the TRNC
territory shall be given to the Greek Cypriots. The fertile area of Guzelyurt
(Morphou) was included too. In addition to this, 10% of the total territorial area
or houses, and 20% of municipality or territorial area in villages or 20% of the
houses shall be given to Greek Cypriots. Adding up to these, Karpaz region, old
Maronite villages and church domains approximately containing 60.000 acre
shall be returned to Greek Cypriots. As a result, Turkish Cypriots living in the
northern Cyprus would only preserve the territories that are registered with a
title deed to Turkish Cypriots.
With respect to the territorial regulations the plan sets a Relocation Board
in order to control and coordinate the vacation and replacement of the current
inhabitants with respect to keeping a balance the people in charge by the ratios
of the population (The Annan Plan, Annex 6, article 7). The Plan aims to provide
some financial support for Cypriots who are not capable of meeting the
demands of relocation. In addition, for people who are not Cypriots citizens,again financial support would be supplied for their returns (The Annan Plan,
Annex 6, article 5).
Approximately 200.00 Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot immigrant
would apply to demand from the Relocation Commission. The Commission will
not make a statement till 90% decision is made. (The Annan Plan, p.146. article
13). Therefore trials will start for years. Here it can be argued that this solution
would in fact lead to more conflicts.
In short, the lands that Turkish Cypriots shall abandon contain 70% fertile
lands and 70% of the water resources. These losses would create a shock on
TRNC’s economy, since it constitutes 18% of the national income (Hisarcıkoğlu,
2003:6).
Property
With regard to land property claims, a Property Board was mandated to
deal with and find a solution to the real owners of the properties before 1974. As
an exception, religious sites, areas under military usage and properties used for
public benefit were out of question for compensation.
Exchange, reinstatement, compensation, sale, long-term lease were considered
as ways out to the problem.
The present users of a property decided for reinstatement would be able to
continue to use the property for their own purposes for up to three years.
On the conditions where a Turkish Cypriot built or restored a residence,
apartment or an office on an old Greek property or land, in other words on the
conditions of significant improvement, then the concerned individual shall apply
the title deed of the land from the Property Board. If the value of significant
improvement is more than the land the concerned land will be given to the
Turkish Cypriot. However, the Turkish Cypriot shall pay the value of the land
to the old owner. On the other hand, according to the Annan Plan, when
determining value of improvement ‘market value’ and when determining value
of a land, ‘current value’ measurements will be taken into consideration. In
other words, a Turkish Cypriot’s improvement will be appraised according to
Northern Cyprus market, and a Greek Cypriot’s old property will be appraised
according to the South Cyprus market. Therefore, since the property values are
higher in Greek Cypriot market, buying a title deed would be impossible for a
Turkish Cypriot. (The Annan Plan, p.101. article 14)
In order to buy equivalent property the value of the Greek property in
north, should be 50% more than the value of Turkish property. If this value is
higher, it is impossible to buy an equivalent property. (The Annan Plan, p.129,
article 12)
Since the evaluation of values of properties was made by ignoring the 1963
and 1974 events (The Annan Plan, p.135), Turkish properties value less than the
Greek properties. According to the ‘current value’ measurement in the Annan
plan, a Turkish property in southern part costs 1400% higher than the Turkish
properties in northern part. (The Annan Plan, p.135).
Then again, according to the Plan, the number of Turkish Cypriots who
would lose their lands is 60.000, and to provide them a settlement in Northern
Cyprus would require at least 15.000 constructions of new houses. In addition to
those, another 60.000 thousand people would lose their own properties, firms,
restaurants and hotels due to the migration of Greek Cypriots to north. To
summarize, 120.000 people among 200.000, would face difficulties, become
homeless and unemployed (Hisarcıkoğlu, 2003:6).