Scandalous British duplicity over Cyprus

The headline for this story has been created out of a combination of the following quote from Britain's Europe Minister Chris Bryant MP, speaking about the Cyprus problem during the Keith Kyle Memorial lecture organised by the Association for Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs on 25th February 2010 (video embedded above)

"Its a shock, its a scandal, its a tragedy that within the European Union we have a divided capital city, that we have a divided island."

... and the story in the Guardian on 3rd March 2010, "The scandalous history of Cyprus" by Robert Ellis, who is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in Denmark and who had during 2005-2008 been a frequent contributor to the Turkish Daily News - in which he refers to the comments by Britain's Europe Minister as part of his introduction, and then provides a brief history of the Cyprus problem before reporting on what I have called 'duplicity' in the following section ...

"Three weeks ago the European parliament passed a resolution on Turkey, calling on Turkey to immediately start withdrawing its troops from Cyprus, address the issue of Turkish settlers on the island and enable the return of the sealed-off section of Famagusta to its lawful inhabitants. The Turkish response was predictable. Prime Minister Erdogan called the resolution 'baseless and unacceptable' and his chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bagis, said Turkey shouldn't take it seriously

"However, Britain sits on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, it is committed to support the US's strategic objective of Turkey's EU membership. But on the other hand, it cannot ignore the continued occupation of 37% of an EU member state.

"At the EU general affairs council meeting in Brussels in December, Britain tried to dodge the issue, supporting the Swedish proposal to reduce the Cyprus question to the level of the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia. When this failed, it issued a counter declaration a fortnight later, stating that it was in the EU's strategic interest not to let 'bilateral issues' hold up the accession process."

Read more of Robert Ellis' Guardian story here.

Given that kind of duplicity it is not surprising that UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband rarely makes any public statements about Cyprus, preferring instead to delegate that horn of Britain's Cyprus dilemma, as well as replying to any Commons questions, to his subordinate Minister for Europe.

They are no doubt both also aware of the resolutions passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at its October 2008 debate about Cyprus.


After the Bryant talk there was chatter among some of the Cypriots - who had trekked to Portcullis House to hear the Europe Minister telling them about the need for Cypriots to take a lesson on 'how to let go' of their entrenched positions from his Indonesian monkey story about how those monkeys are trapped when they place their arms into a gourd containing nuts, and having clutched the hand tight around the nuts, can no longer withdraw their arm from the gourd and are therefore trapped - about how Chris Bryant had said that Britain would not stand in the way if the Cypriot leaders agreed on abolition of Turkey's and Britain's guarantor status over that sovereign nation's affairs.

His audience waited with baited breath to see whether the British MP would make any reference to the European Parliament's resolution requiring Turkey to begin now (February 2010) to withdraw its troops and settlers from the island as a sign of its good faith towards the negotiations, and give up control over the city of Famagusta as required by UN resolutions, but of course he didn't. His audience almost blushed for him when he talked instead about the one and only confidence building measure which has to all intents and purposes already been agreed and is already funded - the opening of the Limnitis checkpoint!

The videos embedded above provide a glimpse into how 30 minutes can be filled with being ever-so-balanced, in not being anti-Turk or anti-Greek but being 'pro-solution'. Having the gift of the gab is, after all an important requirement in the man's job.


Chris Bryant MP could also not have read the analysis "EU, Turkey on collision course" also by Robert Ellis, because that also did not appear until days after Bryant's talk - but one is certain he will be familiar with its content and that he will also be familiar with the famous quote with which Ellis closes his article in ekathimerini.com

"At the Geneva Conference in 1974, British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned: 'Today the Republic of Cyprus is the prisoner of the Turkish army: Tomorrow the Turkish army will find itself the prisoner of the Republic of Cyprus.' With the benefit of hindsight, Jim was right."

As Turkey goes through a period of as near civil-war as one might expect without the outbreak of actual hostilities in the fight between Erdogan's AKP government and the Generals of the Deep State - one is hardly ever reminded by the Turkish press, or British Ministers, that the beginnings of the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer gangs can be traced to Turkish-occupied Cyprus and the military's reactions to Erdogan's being prepared to consider a Cyprus settlement during the Kofi Anan period.

We will never know whether, had the Greek Cypriots voted in favour of that very British-inspired 'International Relations Debacle: The UN Secretary-General's Mission of Good Offices in Cyprus 1999-2004' - whether if the Greek Cypriots had actually voted yes ... if the Erdogan government would have survived.

As pointed out in "Commentary - on the EUs Andrew Duff about Turkeys Ergenekon investigation" on this weblog in October 2009, the answer is clear to those British insiders who do know what is actually going on.

Let Turkey WALK the talk, not just use catchy PR-speak

"20 years after Berlin Wall fell, Nicosia remains divided" - AFP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NXSXT6RPG0



"Zero problems with neighbours" is indeed a catchy phrase which the PR boys have been using for the past month or so to promote Turkey's new-found Post Imperialism, and to promote its image just prior to the decisions by the EU at its December summit when Turkey's (minimal) progress in its accession process.

While the Organisation of Islamic states meets in Ankara currently will Erdogan announce a decision to fire the top Generals over the latest revelations about their Ergenekon activities ?

Will the debate in the Turkish Parliament this week propose changes to the constitution in order to allow actual autonomy to the Kurds ?

Will Turkey propose that it will surrender the ghost city of Famagusta on Cyprus to either EU or UN control ?

Commentary - on the EUs Andrew Duff about Turkeys Ergenekon investigation

EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee

The item below highlights a very rarely expressed view (in ANY diplomatic fora) that if the Greek Cypriots had voted yes in the 2004 Referendum, and if the Annan Plan HAD proceeded into implementation -- THEN arguably the AKP Government would have been overthrown by the Turkish military and the consequences for Cyprus if that had happened are open to speculation.

Its significance however is in highlighting the reality of the non-enforceability of any agreement between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots if such an agreement involves issues unacceptable to the Turkish Deep State.

It also puts paid to the argument that the views of the Turkish Cypriots voting in any referendum in Cyprus actually has any significance - even if one ignores the fact that unlawfully imported Turkish settlers in the occupied areas outnumber indigenous Turkish Cypriots by almost 2 to 1 - when the Turkish military have such absolute veto power over any settlement of the problems of the Republic of Cyprus.

(Verbatim extracts, below, are from Zaman Today http://bit.ly/2xhbwK)


"The 62nd meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee was held in Parliament earlier this week.

"Turkey's credibility as a state founded on the rule of law is at stake vis-à-vis the eventual fate of an ongoing investigation into Ergenekon, a gang that attempted to overthrow the government, particularly now that the authenticity of a document laying out a military plot aimed at destroying the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement has been confirmed, a senior member of the European Parliament has warned.

"Liberal Democrat politician and member of the European Parliament Andrew Duff was in Ankara earlier this week on the occasion of the 62nd meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. The meeting coincided with the emergence of the original of the military plot which has sent shockwaves throughout the country, with many circles gearing up to stand by democracy and the rule of law in Turkey."


Andrew Duff:

“I think it is important that we believe that the prime minister can instruct the army as opposed to the army instructing their prime minister. There’s going to come a time, I hope, that there is a settlement of the Cyprus issue. That’s the time when the prime minister will have to instruct the chief of general staff to withdraw some of its troops from the island. We need to be certain that such an instruction from a prime minister to a chief of general staff is going to be obeyed, is going to be followed. If the Ergenekon crisis is to perpetuate a sense of contest between the army and the Parliament, then we can’t be certain that the settlement of the division of the island, if agreed by the Cypriots, will actually be effective on the ground,” he added.


(end Zaman Extracts)

(Resume Commentary)

Diplomats of other EU countries should stop talking about how Turkey is being constructive in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem and recognise that if the community does really wish to see the gordian knot over the Cyprus issue resolved it is imperative now for the EU to send a clear and unequivocal signal to Turkey to undertake withdrawal of its troops and settlers from Cyprus if it wants to avoid a complete freeze of its accession process during the December 2009 Summit.

The Government of Cyprus, working with the active cooperation of the Greek Government which has already expressed its view that existing powers of Guarantee over the Republic of Cyprus should be abolished in any future Cyprus agreement - must work, with the cooperative input of other governments of the EU, to elicit a policy statement - that the nominees for the post of President and for the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs, will, as part of the confirmation hearings into their appointment, be asked to explain what steps they would propose to implement in drafting and obtaining unanimous EU support of an EU alternative to the Guarantor Power agreements in the 1960 founding instruments of the Republic of Cyprus.

In recognition that actual responsibility for a solution of the Cyprus problem must ultimately be fulfilled by the the United Nations rather than the EU, the EU could recognise that it is in its interest to make a recommendation and undertake the submission of a motion to the UN Security Council to suspend Turkey's seat as a non-permanent member of the Council, pending resolution of these issues

A particularly heartening recent development on the Cyprus issue was the Cyprus communication to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton, described in a Press Release by the Hellenic News of America available at http://bit.ly/Q2oup , "Secretary Clinton receives important Cyprus communication signed by over 30% of U.S. Congress"

"This letter was signed by just under one-third of the entire U.S. Congress. According to the Library of Congress database, only three other foreign policy-related issues -- Iran , Cuba and the Armenian Genocide -- had more Members of Congress expressing such deep concern as cosponsors of resolutions," said Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH) President Andrew Manatos."

Text of Letter

"These Congressional leaders expressed support for Secretary Clinton's efforts to "avoid the resurrection of settlement provisions like those of the 2004 UN effort." They noted that, "those provisions were overwhelmingly rejected and considered `unacceptable to western democracies' by a majority of the Senate European Affairs Subcommittee. You also recognized them recently as the cause for the plan's failure."

"They added that, "foreign advocacy of artificial deadlines and unacceptable settlement provisions contributed to the defeat of the 2004 settlement efforts."

"With regard to Turkey 's illegal occupation of Cyprus , these Congressional leaders said that, "No EU country could be expected to acquiesce to the occupation of a fellow EU member, much less to embrace the occupier as a member of the EU club. It is a virtual certainty that Turkey will never achieve its dream of EU membership as long as its troops continue to occupy Cyprus ."

"They supported efforts to "protect [today's Cypriot settlement negotiators] from foreign constraints and artificial timetables so that they can achieve a bi-communal, bizonal federation that adheres to UN resolutions."

"They concluded by stressing to the Secretary that, "To succeed, a settlement effort should be `of the Cypriots, by the Cypriots and for the Cypriots.'"

Background:

Claire Palley, An International Relations Debacle: The UN Secretary-general's Mission of Good Offices in Cyprus 1999-2004. Hart Publishing, 2005, (ISBN 184113578X)


Copy of this commentary, and additional news clippings from the Turkish Press on this and other matters is available at:
http://bit.ly/1ASG6Y