UNLESS THE Cyprus peace process can be put back on track and the government changes its attitude, the island could be heading for a showdown with the EU, the Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday.
“Divided Cyprus became an EU member on May 1. The island is one of the smallest states in the Union but unless the peace process can be put back on track it seems set to be one of the most troublesome,” an editorial in the FT said.
“As for the Greek Cypriots, they should drop their endless legalistic quibbles, and allow Turkish Cyprus to re-enter the real world as a clear step towards precisely the sort of solution the UN proposed. Of course it is not ideal, but Nicosia has yet to propose anything better. No one will thank Cyprus for fighting its domestic battles in Brussels.”
The editorial was referring Wednesday’s proposed package from the European Commission’s to aid the Turkish Cypriots economically. The package includes a proposal to move towards direct trade with the north, something the government has said it will fight all the way to the European Court of Justice if necessary.
“The European Union’s decision to admit Cyprus, even when it was divided between warring Greek and Turkish communities, was obviously a big gamble. But perhaps back in 1999 it looked more like a calculated risk,” the FT said.
It said that nobody imagined that when it came to the crunch, that it would be the Turkish Cypriots that voted for a settlement and the Greek Cypriots reject it. It added that the real test for the EU was whether it could be a catalyst for peace in Cyprus.
“If it cannot, the dispute in Cyprus could disrupt EU negotiations on many other issues, not least the critical relationship with Turkey,” it said.
“Much will depend on the behaviour of the Greek Cypriot government. Early indications are not positive. Ever since Tassos Papadopoulos, the president, campaigned for a ‘no’ vote in the April referendum, his administration has been talking itself into a corner.”
The editorial said that Papadopoulos was insisting that the north of Cyprus was not a third country and that all its trade should pass through his own territory “where Turkish Cypriot exporters are required to negotiate an extended bureaucratic process of registering to pay value added tax”.
“It is a depressingly legalistic attitude that suggests the Republic of Cyprus is not so much interested in encouraging the prosperity of the Turkish Cypriots, but rather in ensuring that they always use Greek Cypriot intermediaries for dealings with the outside world,” it added.
It also said that the government in Nicosia did not appear to have made any serious preparation for a deal, economically or politically as it was confident Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash would say ‘no’. “Even today, it does not seem to have any coherent strategy on how to get unification back on track,” the FT said adding that most Greek Cypriot leaders appear to have underestimated the political change both in the north and in mainland Turkey.
“They also underestimated the extent of the international backlash after they rejected the UN settlement. It certainly did not help that Alvaro de Soto, the chief UN negotiator, was prevented from appearing on television during the referendum campaign to explain the deal. That suggested bad faith,” the FT said.
It suggested that both sides needed to make political gestures to get the process back on track, and build the trust that was essential to any deal.
