Cyprus
Marcus, Aliza
Every Saturday morning, as tourists at the Greek Cypriot checkpoint walk past coils of barbed wire into the Turkish-Cypriot–controlled sector of Cyprus, Rita Mantoles is out pleading for help....
...But what's to stop him from just holding on to independence once it's recognized...
...It would be only a matter of time before the Aegean Sea—where Ankara and Athens have disputed claims on islands, mineral rights, and territorial waters— became a battlefield...
...The only thing it could come up with was to get the two sides talking again...
...On a small placard are the testimonies of her grief: faded black-and-white photos of her husband, father, uncle, and three other relatives arrested twenty-three years ago by Turkish soldiers who invaded the island a few days after a coup by Greek Cypriots bent on union with Greece...
...The decision to buy the missiles boosted his local popularity while the hint of a delay in deployment gave the international community time to scramble for new ideas...
...Next year Cyprus (read the Greek Cypriots) starts ascension talks with the European Union (EU...
...She clings to the picture of her husband, but it's widely accepted that both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot "missing" from the years of intercommunal violence are dead...
...The Cyprus problem hinders Ankara's aspirations to join the European Union...
...Whatever the truth, Turkish troops never did get around to leaving...
...Brought up to believe they were always the victims— a Cyprus university professor says it was not until he was a twenty-nine-year-old student in the United States that he learned that Turkish Cypriots had been killed in the 1960s—they see the problem as simply one of military occupation...
...Even today Greek Cypriots refuse to acknowledge responsibility...
...It wasn't the Cypriots themselves...
...They talk about a "few unfortunate incidents" or blame it all on the Turkish Cypriots...
...Nor are they saying much different than they were three years ago, when the last round of talks collapsed...
...After some time they might realize it was better to formally link up rather than run two states on such a small piece of land...
...The last census came up with two hundred thousand people...
...In some ways it makes the most sense, but Greek Cypriots are far from accepting this...
...Take for example the events of the summer of 1974...
...As sovereign powers they likely would ease restrictions on freedom of movement...
...Turkish Cypriots, fed up with the bad economy and the lack of opportunities (it is a small state under a virtual embargo with an unwieldy public sector), emigrate in droves to Britain...
...Greek Cypriots cling to an idealized version of the past, in which Greek and Turkish Cypriots worked side by side and danced at each others' weddings...
...In 1959, Turkey and Greece negotiated the independence of Cyprus and then presented it to the people on the island...
...Somewhat less than half are thought to be Turks from the mainland...
...There's a lot of denial in Cyprus, a small Mediterranean island that became independent from Britain in 1960...
...Maybe some houses would trade hands...
...Turkish troops invaded—or did they...
...Despite the rhetoric, Greek Cypriots have softened their demands...
...What sparked the sudden attention...
...The meeting was forced due to a spurt of international interest in this island of some eight hundred thousand people...
...The latest one began this summer just outside New York City with talks between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities...
...Turkey might be willing to trade Cyprus for a settlement of questions relating to the Aegean Sea and a clear path to EU membership...
...Such a scenario is not new, but Greek Cypriots managed to remind everyone of it earlier this year when they announced the purchase of Russian anti-aircraft missiles...
...It's tragic, but true...
...Greek and Turkish Cypriots could get to know each other again after the twenty-threeyear hiatus...
...The question now is whether Turkey will decide that a deal on Cyprus is advantageous...
...Turkey says the forces were sent to protect Turkish Cypriots in the aftermath of the Athens-sponsored coup that toppled the Cypriot government...
...And that, some say, is precisely the problem...
...Today, thirty thousand Turkish troops are the backbone of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey...
...The intercommunal violence between 1963 and 1967 forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves...
...Greek and Turkish Cypriot soldiers glare at each other across the buffer zone, but the past twenty-three years have been remarkably peaceful...
...In essence, he wants north Cyprus acknowledged as an independent state, and then he is willing to talk about a federation...
...What are the odds of an agreement this time around...
...Still, there is a real worry that when Greek Cypriots are faced with the reality of never going home again, a deal could be scuttled...
...Then there is the threat of war between NATO allies Greece and Turkey, each of which has a defense pact with its respective community on the island...
...Turkish Cypriots will interpret this as a slap in the face and may follow up on threats to merge with Turkey...
...Hundreds of them were killed, and the United Nations was called in to patrol...
...Some people ask, Why not just accept two separate states...
...Meanwhile, the population in north Cyprus is growing—and the Turkish Cypriot population is dropping...
...Further back it gets even more complicated...
...Turkish Cypriots remember only the strife that broke out in 1963 when Greek Cypriots tried to change the Constitution that had sought to maintain a balance of power...
...They go back and forth on whom to blame...
...In the north, the problem is that the Turkish Cypriot administration really would prefer to be an independent state...
...The negotiations are sponsored by the United Nations, but even the United States has made its interest clear, appointing former Bosnia mediator Richard Holbrooke as special envoy for the Cyprus problem...
...They have also accepted that Turkish Cypriots will govern their own zone...
...Mantoles dreams of her house, but it's now filled with Turkish Cypriots...
...If the EU lets in half an island, Greek Cypriots will take this as a sign that they do not have to compromise with the Turkish Cypriots...
...Claiming the missiles could hit Turkey, Ankara promised to attack if they were deployed as scheduled in 1998...
...For the sake of economic growth the north would probably allow some Greek Cypriot businesses FALL • 1997 • 25 Politics Abroad to take root...
...No, what was going on outside Cyprus got people thinking...
...This time around, Cypriots get a say at the outset, but if there is a deal to be made, Athens and Ankara will have the final word...
...I believe that one day the Turkish troops will leave and I will be able to go back to my house," says Mantoles, who comes from a village now out of reach, across the United Nationspatrolled buffer zone that cuts the island in two and separates Turkish and Greek Cypriots...
...According to the military accords, an attack by Turkey south of the buffer zone should mean Greek military planes respond by strafing Turkish soldiers...
...With the proper international controls coupled with demilitarization, the threat of Greece or Turkey using the island as a munitions storage center would be small...
...And to give the Greek Cypriots their due, they see no reason to write off a third of the island because of past mistakes on their part or that of Athens and Ankara...
...The men did not exactly come willingly...
...Greek Cypriots say Turkey was exercising its longstanding expansionist plans...
...q 26 • DISSENT...
...One can only hope they will be more successful than they were the last time...
...This attitude does not inspire trust among Turkish Cypriots, who fear a renewal of fighting if they are forced to live side by side with Greek Cypriots...
...Not very good, say Western diplomats...
...There is a real feeling of despair in the north...
...Since nobody but Turkey supports this, the Turkish Cypriots have been forced to consider how much they can get through negotiations...
...The government won't say it publicly, but it understands that not all the 160,000 people displaced in 1974 (about a third of the Greek Cypriot population of the time) will go home...
...At the root of the problem is the fact that they cannot agree on what went wrong when they did live together...
...Greek Cypriot president Glafcos Clerides held firm, but indicated the purchase would be delayed or canceled if there was movement on settlement of the division of Cyprus...
...24 • DISSENT Politics Abroad But efforts to reunite the island continue...
...Long-time Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas wants his "sovereignty" recognized before he agrees to a federation...
...Both sides say they want to set up a bizonal federation, but over the years they have taken turns scuttling talks...
...I am sure my husband is still alive, and for me, there can be no justice, no freedom, until everything can be the way it was that day in July, when I last saw him...
...What they fail to realize is that in the north, Turkish Cypriots see the troops as their protectors...
...So the chance of a settlement between the two sides will evaporate...
Vol. 44 • September 1997 • No. 4
