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“TURKISH CYPRIOTS ARE AFRAID OF BECOMING A FORGOTTEN PEOPLE
By Eric OUTSCHOORN
VOLKSKRANT, November 22, 2005

Once again it seems as if the Turkish Cypriots find themselves in for a bad time, or so they think. Despite all the good intentions of the EU they threaten to sink even further down in their isolation.

LEFKOÞA – Yes, these are hard times, Serdar DENKTASH wholeheartedly agrees seated in his deathly quiet ministry in Lefkosa on a sunday morning. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of what is officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, looks a bit disheartened as he says this. Aside from Turkey, nobody recognizes the mini-republic, which comprises around one-third of Cyprus.

To be a Minister, or even a President, of that does not really mean that every door flies open as you approach. “Recently, our President TALAT visited Washington, where he was properly received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Condoleezza RICE. But that was all. We were given a pat on the back because we had said yes to the UN-peace plan for Cyprus and that was it”.

Serdar Denktash is the son of Talat’s predecessor Rauf DENKTASH, the man, who like no other, incorporated the Turkish Cypriot indomitability. But the old veteran was forced to clear the field when a majority of the Turkish Cypriots –amongst whom there were even a considerable number of immigrants from the Turkish mainland- spoke out in favour of the UN-plan. Talat, likewise a champion of the peace-proposals, succeeded him.

Serdar forms an uneasy tandem with Talat. The President expressly occupies himself with the international politics. In which case there is but little left to do for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, no?

The young Denktash does not wish to confirm this, there is more than enough work for two, he assures. “We find ourselves in a deep isolation, even though our people voted in favour of the UN-idea. The Greek Cypriots are working against us at every front. Although Talat and I disagree politically we nevertheless need to work together”.

Economically Northern Cyprus is not doing to well as a result of said isolation, says Denktash, the only sector in which there is plenty of work is in construction. “That is why PAPADOPOULOS also wishes to put a stop to that by threatening with lawsuits against every one who wishes to buy a piece of land. The Greek Cypriots claim that the title to said land is controversial, but I can inform you that our Government guarantees every purchase of land.”

The fact that there is plenty of building going on is immediately clear. Whosoever walks round in the Northern city of Kyrenia (or Girne, as the Turks call it), cannot help but stumble over the contractors who offer real estate. Everything priced in British Pounds. In Kyrenia a lot is being built on behalf of foreigners, the British in particular, says the entrepreneur Özdil NAMI, and many Turkish Cypriots who are returning from Great Britain have a house built in Famagusta.

Hasan KAHVECIOGLU is the editor in chief of Radyo Mayis in the capital of Lefkosa. It is a news station that exerts itself in particular on behalf of maintaining contacts between Turkish –and Greek Cypriots. In the broadcasts journalists from both sides are given a chance to speak, for, according to Kahvecioglu, that is the only way to put an end to the mutual distrust.

This is not something that is going smoothly, says Serdar Denktash. Ever since the border between North and South was opened again little visits are being made to and fro. “The Turkish Cypriots do not feel welcome over there and they return with a broken heart”. The fact that there have been but relatively few incidents Denktash attributes to the presence of the Turkish army: “It is because of that the Greek Cypriots tend to behave some.”

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Nevertheless, Kahvecioglu is somber: “We have become too dependent on Turkey, they pay around 450 million Euro a year just to keep us going. We have become a toy in the negotiations between Ankara and the EU.”

This is totally untrue says the President Mehmet Ali Talat one day later. “Turkey has not interest in the not forthcoming of a solution for Cyprus, for in that case their own admission into the EU will only become that much more difficult.”

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Talat admits that he too is afraid of a further isolation of Northern Cyprus. “I am most pessimistic about the UN-Chief Koffi ANNAN. He will not be undertaking any new attempt at mediation. He was astonished over the uncompromising attitude of Papadopoulos. The UN will not want to burn their fingers again on this question. Besides that, due to all the internal EU-trouble the Turkish Cypriots threaten to become a forgotten group now that the Greek Cypriots are simply a member.”

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Talat is of the opinion that the EU ought to have an open eye to the ideas of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah GÜL. The EU is demanding of Turkey that she opens her harbours and airports to the Greek Cypriots, because Ankara has signed the Customs Protocol with the EU. This is fine, says Gül, but at the same time there should also be an end to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and people ought to allow them to trade directly with the EU-member states.

This, however, comes up against insurmountable objections with the Greek Cypriots, who see in that option a factual recognition of Turkish Cyprus. Nevertheless, Talat and Kahvecioglu too are saying that the opening up of the Turkish ports and airports to Greek Cypriots will only drive the Turkish Cypriots further into isolation. And that also goes against the intentions of Brussels, which, in their opinion, in fact wishes to put an end to that isolation.

“Papadopoulos does not even wish to have informal contacts with us”, sighs President Talat. “His policy is aimed at slowly having the Turkish Cypriots disappear by way of assimilation.”

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Torn Island

The former British colony of Cyprus became independent in 1960. already by the end of the fifties these arose ethnic tension between the Greek- and the Turkish Cypriots on the waves of nationalism. The relation between the Greek Cypriot President and the Arch Bishop MAKARIOS III and the Turkish Cypriot Vice-President Fazil KÜCÜK was bad and regularly there were skirmishes between Greeks and Turks, the last of whom were by far a minority. When in 1974 the tension once again erupted in a bloody fight after a failed coup by the Greek Cypriot officers, who were striving after becoming one with Greece (the so-called Enosis), the Turks intervened. As it happens, said intervention was allowed in the independence treaty. Ever since there has been a deadlock situation that was almost broken last year by a peace-plan of the UN-Chief Kofi Annan. In a referendum his plan was approved by the Turkish Cypriots and also by the mother countries of Greece and Turkey. The Greek Cypriots, however, -who had meanwhile become a member of the EU- en masse voted against the plan, following an appeal to that effect made by their President Tassos Papadopoulos.