‘Turkey customs agreement is only the beginning’
A MEETING took place yesterday to discuss the impact of Turkey’s customs agreement with Cyprus on the Turkish Cypriot economy in the north.
Staged jointly by Turkey’s highly influential Turkish Industrialist and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) and the Turkish Cypriot Businessmen’s Association (ISAD), the event was billed as a panel discussion aimed at evaluating the implications for the Turkish Cypriot north of Turkey’s newly-signed customs agreement with the Republic of Cyprus.
Barely two weeks ago, Turkey did the inevitable and signed an EU customs agreement with Cyprus that brought its relations with the island closer in line with those it had already established with the other 24 EU member states.
Naturally, this was not something Turkey did out of a sudden rush of affection for Cyprus but out of necessity as it eyed the prospect of a date for which to start accession negotiations with the EU.
By December 17 – the day when the EU decides on whether to give Turkey a date for the start of accession negotiations – Turkey may need to have gone further and recognised Cyprus politically, as well as economically. Presumably, it all depends on how much pressure is applied, and on how much Turkey is willing to concede on the issue.
Nevertheless, pro-EU TUSIAD quite clearly sees the customs union move as a positive one. And, generally speaking, Turkish Cypriot businessmen agree. At least, Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce president Ali Erel does.
“The customs union agreement poses problems for us, but it must and will go ahead. However, it is not right that we are left out,” he told participants at the discussion.
Erel’s biggest fear is that businessmen from Turkey and Cyprus will get it together in a free market while Turkish Cypriots will be forced to sit on the sidelines, able to do little more than observe, or at best, pick up the scraps.
Such a scenario is not difficult to conjure. Cheap Turkish goods could feasibly soon be pouring into the south via Limassol, taking a share of the multi-billion pound import sector while Turkish Cypriots are left struggling to squeeze a limited range of locally produced goods through the Green Line.
ISAD chairman Unsal Ozbilenler was equally concerned.
“Turkish Cypriots are now EU citizens. They carry the passport, but they cannot generate wealth from the lands on which they live,” he told the 100 or so audience gathered at the Chamber of Commerce headquarters in north Nicosia.
Like Erel, he called for a genuine implementation of a free market that would allow “all one million Cypriots and 70 million Turks to trade without barriers”.
Erel advocated being “proactive”, but exactly what needed to be acted upon but – apart from getting Greek Cypriots to vote ‘yes’ to the Annan plan – no one seemed quite sure of how.
“Every day that we are not proactive makes the problem harder to solve,” Erel insisted. Nice words, but as he said himself, “Every time we ask for free trade, we are accused of seeking recognition [for the north]”.
Did this mean, then, that economic solutions are only possible once the necessary political changes have been secured?
TUSIAD’s veteran advisor and EU optimist Ilter Turkmen sought to calm the Turkish Cypriot members of the audience and panel telling them that the necessary political changes would come. Indeed, in his mind, many of them had already begun.
“I first came to the island in 1965, and those who did not see cannot imagine the hardships the Turkish Cypriots had to suffer. Now there is talk of an per capita income of $7,500 per annum – something that would create envy in Turkey,” he said.
Turkmen’s point was that things had improved immensely and that they would continue to do so.
“Before there was a wall that could not be crossed, but now we see great development in relations between the two communities,”
He advised Turkish Cypriots not to dwell on the Greek Cypriot ‘no’ to the Annan plan by saying, “No one should ask why they said ‘no’. It was their democratic right to do so”.
Furthermore, he hailed the fact that Turkish Cypriots were in dialogue with the EU.
“You are sending delegations to Brussels. You are undergoing a process of transition, and it may go on for quite a while,” he concluded.
He also highlighted a transformation in relations between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots by saying, “We are much more frank and open with each other now”.
Erel, however, was not easily placated and sought to emphasise that if Turkish Cypriots were forced to wait for better days, many would leave before the better days arrived.
“We all have EU passports now, so leaving is easy; $7,500 dollars a year might be better than before, but $15,700 a year might actually keep our people here.”
TUSIAD president Omer Sabanci again sought to calm Erel and his Turkish Cypriot counterparts, but this time dwelt more on what the EU and Greek Cypriots had failed to do for the community.
“While we were pleased with the EU report on Turkey, we are saddened by the low morale caused by the EU’s broken promises to the Turkish Cypriots and surprised at the EU’s failure to fulfil its commitments to them,” he said, adding that it was clear the Green Line regulation would do little or nothing to lift the community out of isolation and relative poverty. He also apportioned some blame on the Greek Cypriots, who he said had “failed to understand the historical significance of the Annan plan”.
Sabanci did have one thing to offer the Turkish Cypriots, however.
“Before December 17, TUSIAD will be visiting 12 countries. While pushing for a starting date for Turkey’s accession negotiations, we will also push for support for the Turkish Cypriots.”
Thus, the panel left the participants and audience in no doubt about one thing: that nothing about the future is certain, and that while Turkey has little control over the outcome of its relations with the EU, the Turkish Cypriots have even less.
