The Cyprus Reunification Debate Rumbles On

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Nicosia

22 April 2003

The signing of Cyprus's accession treaty to the European Union last week might have been expected to silence the never-ending discussions over the island's reunification, at least for a while - but on the contrary, it seems to have jolted all parties concerned into a realisation that an opportunity has been missed, and that an illogical result has been obtained: all of Cyprus is in the EU, but only part of it can take part in the single market and the other benefits of the 'acquis communautaire'.

During a visit to Cyprus during the last few days, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis (currently EU President) said he had received a loud and clear message that the political will to find a solution still exists. After a 90-minute meeting on Sunday with Greek and Turkish Cypriot party leaders in Nicosia, Simitis said: “There is a common will to solve the problem along the lines indicated by the UN peace proposal Secretary-General Kofi Annan has submitted to the two sides in Cyprus for a comprehensive settlement.” However, Democratic Party leader Serdar Denktash, leaders of the National Unity Party and 'Prime Minister' Dervis Eroglu refused to attend.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, widely accused of having wrecked the chances of the UN-brokered reunification proposal, reportedly said over the weekend that he would consider signing the UN's plan if Turkey guaranteed it would resettle any Turks in the occupied areas who did not want to live under Greek Cypriot rule. Denktash is reported to have said he would not sign the agreement in its current form, but added: “If Turkey gives these Turkish Cypriots a written promise to migrate and settle in Turkey and to secure them the possibility of work, then I might sign it."

About Turkey's willingness or ability to solve the Cyprus problem there are now two schools of thought: one holds that the EU can force Turkey to agree to reunification on the UN's terms as the price of beginning its negotiation to join the EU; the other holds the opposite view, that Turkey is now in a stronger position because it can make the start of EU negotiations the price for its agreement over Cyprus.

Denktash apparently said he believed that Turkey could ask the European Union to invite the occupied areas along with Turkey to talks on Turkey's EU accession. “This system can go ahead,” he said, and added that if the EU became intransigent then Turkey could turn to the US for help.

Simitis of course takes the opposite tack, saying at a press conference in Nicosia that: “It is not only in the interests of Greece and Cyprus that the Cyprus problem should be solved but in the interests of Turkey as well in relation to its European process.” He said he thought that as time passes the pressure for a Cyprus solution would intensify. “I believe that the possibilities are now better'' than in the past, he added. And Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday repeated that a solution to the Cyprus problem could be found before the island joins the EU on May 1 next year.

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