Nicosia seeks a clear message

Date: 20/06/1996

AS the EU's Intergovernmental Conference trundles on, Cyprus is waiting for the day when negotiations on its entry into the EU will begin.

Yet the biggest questions about the country's future remain unanswered: can the island nation divided for 22 years be united? And will the Union help?

EU member states will be called on next year to decide whether to admit Cyprus to the club. But in the meantime, a question mark remains over what the Union can - and is willing - to do to help bring about reunification.

It is time, says Cypriot Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides, for the Union to act.

The Cyprus question has traditionally been the domain of the United Nations, not the EU, but UN members have given the organisation no political support for taking action, says Michaelides, who cannot explain why the UK and France, both on the UN Security Council, have done nothing. “No resolute action has been taken in 22 years,” he maintains.

But as Cyprus' President Glafcos Clerides wings his way from meetings with Security Council members and US President Bill Clinton to an audience with British Prime Minister John Major before attending the EU summit this weekend in Florence, Cypriot officials are daring to hope that a new initiative can be launched this year.

Nicosia wants the Union and Washington to join hands for a real diplomatic push. “It's very important that the message is of an all-out effort between the EU and the US together,” stresses Michaelides.

After watching the Europeans play second fiddle to the Americans in the Middle East and Bosnian peace processes, Michaelides says “there is an inclination in the Union to stay away from problems”.

But he adds: “In Cyprus, a European nation and a prospective EU member, one would expect the key partners in Europe or the European Union as an institution to be taking up the issue.”

Michaelides suggests how this could be done, saying a structure similar to the five-nation Contact Group organised for Bosnia could negotiate with the island's opposing factions and draft a peace plan. Once a peace initiative was drawn up, he says, an EU-US team could be installed on the island to implement it.

“The important thing is that there is a physical and actual presence of one or more persons on that team” on the island, he argues.

The Union sent its representative Federico di Roberto on two fact-finding missions this year, but the Turkish government complained that his reports did not present the position of the Turkish enclave, which represents about 18&percent; of the population.

A new UK envoy to Cyprus - Sir David Hannay, a former British ambassador to the EU - met Clerides in Nicosia early this month and Cypriot officials expect useful advice from the man who helped negotiate the UK's entry into the Union.

The Irish, preparing for their EU presidency, have also expressed real interest in helping to resolve the matter. Foreign Minister Dick Spring met leaders on both sides of the divided island in March and is continuing his talks with Michaelides.

These meetings are all well and good, says Michaelides, “but now we have to move one step further. The Union has to present an initiative that both sides will accept.”

Nicosia's foreign minister, for one, has a few ideas. He wants a “multi-national force with a new mandate that will make their presence effective”. Unlike the UN peacekeeping force which has been on the island for years, such a force could satisfy Cypriot government fears of “outside intervention” (Michaelides' diplomatic term for Turkish incursion) and Turkish Cypriot fears that a peace agreement would not be applied.

For the Clerides government, Turkish Cypriots are a big stumbling block on the road to EU membership. Although the Union still maintains the island does not have to be unified to join, it is clear that a divided island will not be accepted easily.

But expectations of membership can help bring about a negotiated settlement, argues Michaelides.

“The question is whether Turkish Cypriots want to share the benefits of accession. If they do, there is only one way: to try to find a solution so that Cyprus enters the Union with the problem already solved,” he insists.

Arguments that the Union cannot be an impartial peacemaker on Cyprus because Greece is an EU member and Turkey is not are unacceptable, argues Michaelides.

“Turkey tries to keep the EU out of these issues on the pretext that Greece is a member of the Union. But Greece's membership did not stop Turkey from coming closer to Europe and seeking customs union, or from seeking accession to the Union. If they want to come closer, why would they reject the role of the EU in finding a solution to the problem?” he asks.

Nor should the ongoing Athens-Ankara dispute over islands in the Aegean be linked to Cyprus' bid for EU membership, says the foreign minister, adding: “We cannot be called to pay the price if something goes wrong with Turkey.”

Nonetheless, the linkage made between Greek-Turkish disputes and Cyprus' accession makes Nicosia somewhat nervous.

“If we are upset about it”, he says, “it is because we read this as something which damages the effect the process may have on the solution of the Cyprus problem.

“If the message is clear that Cyprus is joining the EU, then both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership have to decide whether they want to be in it or not. If they want to be in it, they have to make a move and solve the problem. But if they believe that it is not certain that we will be in, why should they worry?”

Michaelides is not asking EU governments to guarantee Cyprus a place in the Union, but to give it enough political support to encourage the peace process.

“What we want from EU member states is not a blank cheque. We ask them to reserve their right to cast their votes at the end, but in the meantime, to give a positive signal to make this whole exercise work for a solution to the problem,” he says.

“It is the prospect of the accession that will help. The mere thought that Cyprus is on its way to accession is a stimulus for the Turkish side to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, because they will not want to stay out of it.”

So far, the island's Turkish enclave is excluded from the benefits of EU programmes and financing, including the Euro-Mediterranean initiatives designed to link Cyprus, Turkey and other Mediterranean states to the Union with closer political and commercial ties.

The EU works exclusively with Nicosia, and Michaelides believes Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash “will never accept anything that comes through the government of Cyprus”.

Asked whether the Clerides government would allow the EU to deal directly with Denktash, Michaelides is categorical.

“Our answer would be no,” he says, making it clear that even indirect Union recognition of Denktash would be too much for Nicosia.

But somehow, EU officials must begin talks with both sides that will result in a lasting peace. Whatever its nature, the plan cannot afford to fail, says Michaelides.

“The structures (of peace) must be viable because the EU will not want to see something collapse within the European Union,” he insists.