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CYPRUS SHOWDOWN

Hurriyet - September 28, 2009 by Yusuf Kanli The chubby Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias boldly declared in New York that he was attending the U.N. General Assembly as a “president” and as such he was even higher in rank, and thus in protocol, than even the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whereas Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat was there as a “communal leader” and that it would be awkward for a president and the United Nations secretary-general to have a trilateral meeting with a communal leader. Later Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan told journalists that Christofias wanted a trilateral meeting with himself and the U.N. secretary-general but he flatly rejected the request and told Christofias that he could only agree to a meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader if it was at least a four-party meeting, including Turkey, Greece and the two parties on the island. The prime minister said Christofias then asked him what the status of Talat would be at such a meeting. “I told him that in whatever capacity he attends in at such a meeting, Talat would have the same status.” Then, we have the statement of Dr. Özdemir Özgür, a retired 78-year-old diplomat, who after living so any decades among Greek Cypriots moved to northern Cyprus only six months ago. He told the Star Kıbrıs newspaper that “Greek Cypriots were after achieving enosis (union with Greece) and Turkish Cypriots were after partition. The Greek culture is based on thought and theories. Turkish culture is based on force, order, tranquility. Greek Cypriots are not realist, they are idealists. They believe Turkish Cypriots are a minority and everybody should see them as such. Greek Cypriots will never concede they made errors…” Naturally, there is a generalization in what Özgür said. Obviously, not all Greek Cypriots wanted union with Greece, and not all Turkish Cypriots wanted partition. In a nutshell, however, the above paragraphs, together with the trauma created on the Greek Cypriot population with the 1974 Turkish intervention on the island, are indeed indicative of the psychological dimension of the Cyprus quagmire, which is far more important than all other dimensions of the intractable problem. Any effort aimed at resolving the problem between the two peoples of the eastern Mediterranean island must therefore first address this psychological problem. Essential is the awareness that Greek Cypriots accept Turkish Cypriots as equal political partners in the independence and sovereignty of the island and see the reality that, as the former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had put in one of his many reports, “The relationship between the two communities of Cyprus is not one between majority and minority but of two equal peoples sharing the same homeland.” The EU membership application and the consequent May 1, 2004 membership of the “island” in the EU with an only-Greek Cypriot administration further consolidated the “temporary” situation created in 1964 as the “conjectural reality” of Cyprus. Thus, apart from the psychological wall impeding a resolution on Cyprus, this international political anomaly serving the political ambitions of the Greek Cypriot side is yet another concrete barrier rendering impossible a unified Cyprus resolution on the basis of political equality of the two peoples, devoid of minority-majority relationship between the two peoples of the island. “I am president of an internationally recognized republic, he is not. In what status Talat will attend a meeting in New York where I am participating as a head of state and as such, in rank and protocol, I am superior to even Turkey’s Erdoğan?” Christofias stated. Asking whether he could accept a trilateral meeting with the U.N. secretary-general and Talat while in New York for the General Assembly meetings is a response to those who wish to see a settlement on Cyprus. If one side is recognized as the “government” and the other as a “community” or “minority” leader demanding some privileged concessions for his people, there can never be a united Cyprus resolution. Is the international community, wishing to see a Cyprus resolution, prepared to tell Greek Cypriots, openly or behind closed doors, that they indeed consider the two sides as “political equals” and if by a certain date no progress is achieved towards a resolution because of Greek Cypriots they might move to change the status quo? If not, forget a Cyprus resolution…

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