CAIRO, 27 April 2004 — What happened? A year ago, when the fortified green line carving Aphrodite’s Isle in two, opened up for the first time in 30 years the results were joyous. Greek and Turkish Cypriots flooded into one another’s sectors, drank each other’s coffee and visited the homes they were often driven out of during the 1974 Turkish invasion.
There were cases of childhood friends — one Turk and the other Greek — meeting up for the first time, crying and hugging; an elderly Greek woman was given back a treasure trove of gold she had buried in the garden before fleeing; another was handed her old wedding gown and faded family photographs. A Turkish-Cypriot dentist put a note on his door with his work telephone number just in case the former resident of the house passed by. Turkish-Cypriots sought casual work in the Greek areas, while others returned with armfuls of shopping bags. In other words, there was an awful lot of goodwill on both sides evidenced by the amount of people crossing over each day and the rarity of unpleasant incidents. “We are all Cypriots,” avowed many.
But instead of capitalizing on that wealth of good feeling when it was time to vote on Kofi Annan’s plan to reunify the island prior to the Greek side’s membership of the EU, not only do the leaders of both sides urge a “no” vote, Greek Orthodox Church leaders deliberately set out to influence their congregations.
The Bishop of Kyrenia went as far as telling Greek Cypriots they would be doomed to a life in hell if they voted for the plan. Another said by refusing unification, “Enosis”, or union with Greece, would be achieved since Greece is a member of the EU. As a Turkish-Cypriot newspaper editor put it, for religious leaders to refuse a lasting peace in favor of a hostile division is unusual, to say the least.
When I first heard the results of the referendum my heart went out to the Turkish Cypriots, 65 percent of whom had voted “yes” as opposed to 76 percent of Greek-Cypriots coming out against the plan. For decades they have lived in total isolation under an international embargo. Their government only recognized by Turkey, flights to northern Cyprus had to pass via Ankara and there were few markets for their goods and services. While the wealthy Greek areas grew richer, the Turkish-Cypriots seemed doomed to remain in the 20th-century — and not the latter half.
However, it turns out that the Greek-Cypriots may have shot themselves in the foot by not welcoming their ethnic Turkish brethren to the fold. Indeed, they are hardly flavor of the month with either the United Nations, which feels snubbed, or EU commissioners, some of whom view that vote as xenophobic; hardly in the spirit of a community of European nations joining together with a common goal for the greater good. One EU diplomat told The Independent: “They (the Greek-Cypriot government) have used censorship and propaganda. The manner in which they have campaigned has done huge damage to the Greek-Cypriots.”
Gunter Verheugen, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, was refused access to Greek-Cypriot television viewers to argue for a “yes” vote and says: “There is a shadow now over the accession of Cyprus. What we will seriously consider now is finding a way to end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots”.
Instead of being one unified, secure and prosperous island, Cyprus may forever have Turkish troops on its soil, some 38,000 at present, and play host to some 120,000 settlers from the Turkish mainland. Its green line now won’t be just a division between the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot areas of Cyprus, but morphs into an EU external border — the spot where Europe finishes and the outer world begins, necessitating further militarizing in addition to the barbed wire and no-man’s land which already exists.
Furthermore Greeks who lost their homes 30 years ago will no longer have the right either to re-possess or receive compensation, which was a feature of the rejected Annan plan.
European expats who gobbled up cheap houses and apartments in the north in search of sun, sea, and tranquility no longer have to dread a knock on the door and can, instead, look forward to their assets growing in value.
Northern Cyprus, on the other hand, is likely to be rewarded for saying “yes”. Generous EU aid is likely to flood in; its airport and ports will open up for trade; and most of all the northern enclave will, for the first time, be internationally recognized.
Turkey will get a pat on the back, too, for supporting the Annan plan and will probably receive a date for negotiating its entry into the EU.
“Now we have changed the image of the Turkish Cypriots as the ones who run away from a solution,” said the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. “This is the most successful event in the last 50 years of Turkish diplomacy.”
The Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash unfailing in his rejection of the plan now rather hypocritically lauds his people’s choice and blames the Greek-Cypriots for refusing unification. In any event, now that world opinion is generally sympathetic to Northern Cyprus, the Turkish-Cypriots can look forward to a more prosperous future with help from their newfound friends.
What happens to Northern Cyprus, if and when Turkey gains its coveted EU membership is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Annan should use the leverage of a second plan, which would incorporate the beleaguered north into Turkey when it would automatically gain EU entry. Now that might throw the cat among the pigeons and give Greek-Cypriot isolationists serious pause for thought!
— Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs and welcomes feedback at [email protected]
