Turkish Cypriot parliamentary elections on 19 April brought a conservative party back to power, and European commentators have begun to speculate about the new government’s potential to interfere in negotiations. Cast as anti-solution, the new government is seen in some circles in Europe as a potential obstacle to the island’s reunification. However, warnings about the impending disaster should negotiations fail only reveal the weakness of the EU’s position in Cyprus, where it has neglected to implement or even to formulate a consistent policy on the position of Turkish Cypriots within Europe. Turkish Cypriots now possess EU passports but live in a state outside the EU acquis communautaire, and they are engaged in negotiations with a community that effectively controls the Republic of Cyprus, the state that represents Turkish Cypriots according to international law, even though they have no representation within it. Moreover, recent lawsuits over property reveal that Europe has been unable to formulate a position on the legal and political status of what are usually called “the areas not controlled by the government of Cyprus.” Indeed, European diplomats admit that the union has taken a hands-off approach to the Cyprus Problem and that it has no backup plan should negotiations fail.
Recent elections in the north demonstrate that Turkish Cypriots have tired of negotiations that have dragged on behind closed doors, with no end in sight. The momentum that drove pro-reunification protests in 2002 and 2003 has ground to a halt, leaving Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat spinning his wheels in the mire created by a failed 2004 referendum. Although Turkish Cypriots supported a UN-sponsored plan to reunify the island that had been given full EU backing, Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected it at referendum. The EU subsequently promised to end Turkish Cypriot isolation, a promise that it has not kept. Turkish Cypriots have begun to ask, as though in refrain, “’Evet’ dedik de ne oldu?,” “We said ‘yes,’ and what happened?” And in the meantime, property lawsuits brought in European courts threaten to undermine Talat’s capacity to negotiate, holding the sword of legal reprisal over his head. Using international law, Greek Cypriots have been handed the legal high ground, as European courts affirm that the Republic of Cyprus is the only representative of the entirety of the island.
This paper argues that recent election results in north Cyprus and the current indifference to negotiations throughout the island may be attributed to changes brought about by the EU’s bumbling entry into the Cyprus conflict. Although EU diplomats concede their mistake in admitting the RoC as a member state before the island’s reunification, the EU has made no substantive attempt since that time to correct its error or to rectify the dynamics set in motion by the RoC’s EU entry. Instead, it appears that certain EU member states find the RoC’s presence in the union convenient for their own purposes, since the RoC is always prepared to wield its veto to block negotiations with Turkey. Equally importantly, the Cyprus Problem itself is a handy tool, since its non-resolution has become an additional stumbling-block on the road to Turkey’s EU entry.
* This Policy Brief was prepared by Mete Hatay (PRIO Cyprus Centre) and Rebecca Bryant (George Mason University) on behalf of Global Political Trends Center. The opinions and conclusion expressed herein are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of GPoT or Istanbul Kultur University.
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