According to the Independent newspaper UK’s former foreign minister Jack Straw calls for Cyprus’ partition
Earlier this summer the 11th international effort to strike a deal between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots never happened –Jack Straw So, whatever its terms, will the next, and the next. It is time to end the charade that negotiated agreement to unite the island with a “bizonal, bicommunal” government will ever be possible. The solution is to partition the island and give international recognition to a Turkish-Cypriot state in the north.
Endless, mainly UN-sponsored, negotiations have taken place since. A reduction in Turkish troop numbers have been part of these negotiations. One of the most important was the 2004 “Annan” plan, painstakingly negotiated by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his special representative for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, to provide a federal, “bizonal” and “bicommunal” constitution. The plan was approved overwhelmingly in referenda by the Turkish Cypriots but was rejected by an even bigger margin by the Greek Cypriots.
The fundamental problem was – and remains – that the Greek Cypriots had no incentive to sign up to the deal. In one of its worst strategic decisions ever, the European Union (sadly, with UK acquiescence) had agreed that Cyprus should join the EU on 1 May 2004, whether agreement had been reached with the Turkish Cypriots or not.
However, in limbo is exactly where the Turkish Cypriots have been left. Initial efforts by the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU to ameliorate some of the problems which have faced them came to nothing – blocked by the ‘Government of Cyprus’.
Meanwhile, Greek-Cypriot Cyprus has hardly acquitted itself as a model member of the EU. It faced an existential banking crisis in 2012-13, caused in part by Cyprus’ role as Russia’s offshore banker of choice. Last month The Guardian claimed that the Cyprus government has raised more than €4bn since 2013 by providing citizenship (with rights across the EU) to foreign nationals, including “billionaire Russian oligarchs and Ukrainian business elites”.
For any negotiation of this kind to succeed, both sides have to be able to gain something. But, from the Greek Cypriot point of view, conceding political equality with the Turkish Cypriots means giving power away. If the quid pro quo had been EU membership, a deal in my view would have been agreed. But absent that, the reality is that however well intentioned, no Greek-Cypriot leader will ever be able to get their electorate behind a deal. The status quo for the south is simply too comfortable.
Jack Straw says “It’s time, in my view, for the international community to acknowledge this reality and recognise the partition of the island. That would be far more likely to improve relations between the two communities than continuing the useless merry-go-round of further negotiations for a settlement that never can be”.
Independent