Cyprus – the isle that divides Turkey and EU

Date: 22/09/05

The continued division of the Mediterranean island has left a stain on Turkey's EU membership bid, writes Andrew Beatty

Although it is more than 16 months since the EU admitted a disunited Cyprus into the Union, with little movement towards a United Nations-brokered settlement in the interim, the repercussions of that decision have never been more keenly felt by diplomats than in the last couple of weeks.

Forced to draft and redraft the documents needed for Turkey to start accession negotiations on 3 October, EU representatives have been able to measure the impact of admitting the Greek south without its Turkish northern neighbour in hours spent at the negotiating table.

While a great deal of the debate has been about Turkey and its relations with the EU, according to Ferdi Sabit Soyer, the prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, much of it has nothing to do with Turkey.

For him the recent debate over Ankara's recognition of Greek Cyprus is about where, when, how and if Cyprus is reunited.

Putting it diplomatically, Soyer says: "Turkey's EU accession process and the problem of Cyprus have come to a point where they are closely interlinked."

Less delicately put, he says the whole of the EU is in the position of being a hostage to Greek Cypriots.

"The EU seems to be helpless faced with their demands," he says "and it is starting to look like the European Union is a guardian of the hostage takers."

The mistrust is evident.

But Greek Cyprus has not been alone in arguing that Turkey cannot credibly join a Union which has one member it does not recognise.

In an agreement on Wednesday (21 September) EU member states reiterated this view, albeit in a compromised form using the formula that recognition will be reassessed in 2006 but not before accession negotiations begin.

For Soyer the request itself is inherently unfair. "It would not be appropriate to ask Turkey to give concessions [on Cyprus] for the sake of their own accession process, that would not be fair, because that will raise the question whether the EU would ask the Turkish Cypriots to sacrifice their communal identity, their political equality and this would be in conflict with the principles on which the European Union has been founded," he says.

But politically the prime minister suggests there is a bigger consideration. In forcing Turkey to unilaterally recognise Greek Cyprus, perhaps as soon as 2006, or make other concessions, he says one half of the settlement process becomes unbalanced, putting a solution in jeopardy.

He also questions the south's motivations in wanting to drag the EU into the settlement process: "What we want is for the Cyprus problem to be resolved in a bi-zonal, a bi-communal basis, based on the United Nations' initiative. The Greek Cypriots want to get the problem out of the UN and put it into the European Union.

"The Greek Cypriots want a Cyprus which is dominated by Greek Cypriots, a unitary state rather than a federal state, which in effect means a second Greek state within the European Union."

Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos appearing before the UN General Assembly in New York on 18 September told delegates that Greek Cyprus was committed to the UN track.

But despite Papadopoulous's pledges, Soyer remains convinced that Greek Cypriots are leveraging EU membership to impose what he calls "the 1963 status quo...a government which consists solely of Greek Cypriots, where Turkish Cypriots have been pushed out".

Soyer is also sensitive to EU demands that Greek Cypriot ships and aeroplanes have access to Turkish ports and airports while direct flights and direct trade between northern Cyprus and the rest of the world continues to be blocked.

Those backing the UN plan now hope that the delay in Turkish recognition of Greek Cyprus can leave room for a return to those negotiations, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan again making use of his 'good offices' in the coming months.

Analysis feature in which the author looks at the repercussions on Turkey's bid for EU membership caused by the problems with unifying the politically divided island of Cyprus.