[0]
One island, two states: Cyprus has effectively been divided as two different countries for 24+ years now, and is today at peaceNICOSIA (Tiraspol Times) - In their divided capital city of Nicosia, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have now begun talks of a united state which might set a precedent for the Moldova-Pridnestrovie conflict if the outcome - a federal state of two constitutive parts - is successful.
The president of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, on Friday met for the first time since Christofias's election last month renewed hopes that the island's three-decade-long division could be resolved.
Both sides agreed to open a symbolic crossing at Ledra Street, a busy pedestrian shopping street in the heart of Nicosia that runs across the capital's dividing line, AP reported.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is divided into a Greek Cypriot-controlled south and a Turkish Cypriot controlled north, which is not widely recognized internationally. The island was spli in 1974, when the Turkish minority broke off in response to a coup by majority Greek politicians who wanted to unite the island with Greece.
Under Christofias’s hardline nationalist predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos, it was the Greek Cypriots, not the Turkish Cypriots, who were most to blame for obstructing Cypriot unity. In a referendum in 2004, the UN’s Annan Plan for Cyprus’s reunification was overwhelmingly approved by the Turkish Cypriot electorate but, on Papadopoulos’s urging, overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek Cypriot electorate.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is smaller than Pridnestrovie. Whereas Pridnestrovie has some 550,000 inhabitants, the TRNC has left than half that: A mere 264,000 at last count. Pridnestrovie is also larger in territory, with 4,163 km² versus TRNC's 3,355 km² (1,295 sq mi) under sovereign control.
Despite talks with its southern neighbor, the de facto independent TRNC is also seeking international recognition of its current status. So far, only Turkey has recognized the state.
Northern Cyprus sees Kosovo as a precedent and a model to follow, and was among the first to congratulate the self-declared state upon its unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February.
" - No people can be forced to live under the rule of another people," said the President of Northern Cyprus, Mehmet Ali Talat, in an official statement issued by the Presidential Press Office and sent to Kosovo just one day after its unilateral break-off with Serbia.
- Token gestures, but no quick fix
With the next meeting scheduled three months from now, there are no hopes of a quick solution to the stalemated territorial conflict.
" - Both parties will make some token gestures of goodwill, like the opening of a pedestrian border crossing in the old city of Nicosia, but that will, to my opinion be all," says a foreign analyst with inside knowledge of the situation in the TRNC.
Following the first meeting of the two presidents, both parties have made their points of view abundantly clear.
The Turkish Cypriot side says that status talks must start from the so-called Annan Plan of the United Nations. This plan comprises 6,000 pages of laws and regulations for the planned United Republic of Cyprus, consisting out of two constituent, autonomous states which would among other things have their own separate foreign trade- and cultural representatives. The envisioned joint government would be similar to Switzerland's, with a rotating presidency drawn from the members of the cabinet, and with a federal structure like Belgium's.
Backers of a single Cypriot state hope that the Belgium model will work better for them than it does in Belgium. In the country where the model is copied from, this structure is not working, and Belgium itself is in a deep split between the Flemish Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking Wallonia in the south.
" - The existence of a united Belgium is an accident of history," says Yves Leterme, the new Belgian PM who was sworn in last week as the head of a fragile five-party coalition government.
- The Annan plan for a common state
Although the Turkish Cypriots had to "make great sacrifices" (in the words of the Secretary General of the U.N.), on 24 April 2004 two-thirds of them voted in favor of the Annan Plan with the hopes of an an expected end to their isolation and hoping to enter the European Union. The Annan Plan had the full support of the Security Council of the U.N., as well of backing from the United States, Britain and the European Union.
Despite TRNC's wish to push forward, the government of the Greek-controlled south of the island refused: The Annan Plan was voted down by more than 76% of the Greek Cypriots.
Today, although Northern Cyprus accepted the Annan Plan, the plan is now "dead and buried" in the eyes of the island's ethnic Greek majority. They support status talks which take the existing Republic of Cyprus as the starting point, and set up a federal government along the lines of Austria, were the states have little political influence on the government in Vienna. They don't want a so-called "virgin birth" by which the two constituent states would create a new republic under the name of the United Republic of Cyprus.
After the Turkish Cypriot vote in favor of the Annan Plan and reunification of Cyprus, the European Union promised to lift trade embargoes on Northern Cyprus, thus allowing free trade and freedom of movement with the EU.
But a mere six days after the vote, on 1 May 2004, the Greek Cypriots became an EU member state. With a seat in Brussels, the Greek Cypriots immediately started blocking all EU moves that they deemed favorable towards their Northern neighbors. Nevertheless, the EU was able to open an separate representative office in the TRNC to coordinate financial aid. In response, the Greek Cypriot government began legal procedures against the European Union at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, filing three lawsuits protesting that humanitarian aid to the Turkish Cypriots didn't not go through their own Greek-controlled Government of the Republic of Cyprus and was thus not meted out by them, according to their own desires.
Circles in Brussels regret the hardline stance of the Greek Cypriots, who were originally granted EU membership under the assumption that they, too, would support the Annan Plan for a united Cyprus. In recent months, the European Union has made it clear to the Greek Cypriots that it is necessary to show deeds, not only words. But with 76% of its population having voted against the Annan Plan, there is no clear answer to the main question: How do we reach an agreement which is acceptable to both the Greek and the Turkish Cypriots at the same time?
- Possibility of 'Cyprus Precedent' for PMR
Despite continued rhetoric of "re-gaining the north," many Greek Cypriots are now supportive of a de facto separation: The Greek Cypriot press has recently carried articles questioning whether a separation between Greek Cypriots and Turk Cypriots would not be a better solution than a federation where the Greek Cypriots, as the Greek southern majority is reluctant to share government powers with the Turkish Cypriots.
Northern Cyprus has its own domestic issues which prevent reunification. The TRNC has scheduled elections for next year, and it looks increasingly doubtful whether current President Talat and the CTP party will be elected again. Although President Talat and the CTP were elected on the promise of the end to embargoes and the hope of EU membership, he was unable to deliver. Therefore, in order maintain any chance at all for re-election, he can not be seen as making substantial Turkish Cypriot sacrifices to the Greek Cypriots.
" - Thus I still bet on an independent TRNC in the near future, especially after Kosovo," notes a foreign diplomat who is resident on the island.
Talat and Christofias will meet again in three months. The outcome on Northern Cyprus may set a precedent for status resolution in Pridnestrovie.
If Northern Cyprus reunites with the rest of the island inside a single state, Moldova will want to use Cyprus as a blueprint for solving its own conflict. Meanwhile, however, many in both Pridnestrovie (PMR) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) argue that Kosovo is the right model to follow, in effect asking the world: If Kosovo can get independence, why can't we?
The recognition of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence demonstrated that the international community no longer upholds the principle of the inviolability of state borders, and that countries such as the United States are increasingly lending more weight to an often conflicting principle, the right to self-determination and democratic choice.
See also:
» De-facto independent Northern Cyprus turns 24 [1]
» Kosovo recognized by Northern Cyprus: "No people can be forced to live under the rule of another" [2]
Opinion and commentary:
» In praise of 'Virtual States' [3]