December 3, 2001. Copyright, 2001, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Crisis looms over CyprusÕ bid to join EU club

LONDON, December 3, Graphic News: Deadlocked reunification talks between CyprusÕ Greek and Turkish communities enter a crucial phase on Tuesday with their leaders meeting in the United Nations-controlled buffer zone splitting the Mediterranean island.

After months of behind the scenes activity, 83-year-old Glafkos Clerides, the Greek-Cypriot leader, and his long-time friend, 77-year-old Rauf Denktash, the Turkish-Cypriot leader, are to meet for the first time in four years. The talks come amid concern that a failure to resolve the Cyprus dispute will trigger a time bomb under European Union expansion plans.

The EU -- once described by its foreign affairs commissioner, Chris Patten, as Òa wonderful experiment where members argue about fish quotas instead of shooting at each otherÓ -- must soon decide whether to add Cyprus to the list of 12 new entrants invited to join the club by 2004.

Unfortunately conflict -- and not the spread of peace and stability -- may just become the outcome of the invitation to the divided island if ultra-national members of the Turkish parliament and army get their way. 

The island was split when Turkey invaded the island in 1974, separating the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) from the Greek-Cypriot south. Now, after 27 years of emnity there now seems to be a slight softening in the traditional birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

The UN-sponsored Òproximity talksÓ are expected to focus on establishing a loose federation whereby a joint membership of the north and south is acceptable to the EU. Greek-Cypriots have indicated that they will recognize -- possibly apologise -- for the mistakes of the past, especially their treatment of the small Turkish-Cypriot community in the years after independence from Britain in 1960; and Turkish-Cypriots would agree to return some land held following the 1974 invasion.

The alternative strategy of admitting the Greek-run southern Republic of Cyprus into the EU fold, hoping this will soften AnkaraÕs stance, seems doomed to failure. The Turkish parliament, which met in closed session to debate the issue in November, has indicated this would force it to annex TRNC outright -- some Turkish members of parliament have even called for military action against Greece if Cyprus joins the EU. 

Attitudes to the Cyprus problem vary within the 15-nation EU. The European commissioner in charge of enlargement, GŸnter Verheugen, is said to favour admitting a divided Cyprus -- and risk the consequences with Turkey -- rather than face a Greek veto on any enlargement that excludes Cyprus.

But Javier Solana, the EUÕs foreign policy guru and former general-secretary of NATO, is believed to oppose the move: after all Turkey is a major member of NATO and key to NATOÕs attempts to see the back of Saddam Hussein in neighbouring Iraq.

So, a crisis looms. A Greek veto over the future some 750,000 Cypriots could scupper the EUÕs enlargement plans to admit 80 million Poles, Czechs and other Central Europeans. Either way the EU and UN have just over a year to resolve the problem -- or risk conflict between Greece and Turkey.
/ENDS
Sources: JaneÕs Foreign Report, The Economist, Reuters