By Stefanos Evripidou
Published on December 1, 2010
TURKEY WANTS the US to have a higher profile in the “Cypriot-led” peace talks on the island, according to leaked diplomatic cables gradually being released online by WikiLeaks.
Over 250,000 documents are being leaked by the controversial website, including a number of cables sent from the US Embassy in Ankara to the State Department regarding Turkey, the EU and Cyprus.
According to one cable, in a meeting between State Department Undersecretary William Burns and Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu on February 18, 2010, the latter urged greater US involvement in the Cyprus talks and spoke of Greek Cypriot “complacency” in the talks.
In another cable, the Greek Cypriots and the EU were blamed for the fact that the island is still divided.
Sinirlioglu told Burns that Turkey’s EU accession was being obstructed by the politically motivated objections of several member states, notably France, Austria and Cyprus. He reserved special criticism for French President Nicholas Sarkozy, arguing French opposition to Turkey’s membership was “deepening the cultural divide” between Christian Europe and the Muslim world. He was quoted in the briefing cable saying: “A wider audience is watching this.”
The Turkish diplomat said he regretted perceived Greek Cypriot complacency regarding the island’s reunification talks, observing that EU “membership makes them invulnerable”.
Greek Cypriots, he said, want the world to forget the progress achieved by the Annan Plan in 2004. They pretend relations between the island’s two communities are an internal affair, even though, by treaty, it’s been an international issue for 50 years. Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat’s cross-voting proposal should have been a breakthrough, but the Greek Cypriots failed to react, said Sinirlioglu.
The Turkish official told his American counterpart that UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer was frustrated, as were the Turkish Cypriots.
According to the cable, Sinirlioglu even predicted that the Turkish Cypriots would register their frustration by voting out Talat in the April elections and renewed Turkey’s appeal for higher profile direct US involvement in the negotiations.
The leaked documents could also reveal some of the thinking of the State Department on Turkey’s new wave of foreign policy initiatives, including its “impressive” acceptance of the Annan plan in 2004. Applauding Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems” approach, one cable notes that there is no one better on the horizon than the current crop of political leaders in Turkey, despite “their special yen for destructive drama and – rhetoric”.
On the zero problem approach, one cable warned “there is a fly in its ointment”.
It goes on to say: “Little of true practical and final accomplishment has been achieved. Cyprus is still split (albeit the fault, at least in terms of the Annan plan, lies more with the Greek Cypriots and the EU); tensions with Greece in the Aegean continue; the Protocols with Armenia have not been ratified…”
Cables from 2004 welcome Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s “bold” step in November 2002 to try to move Turkey away from its no-solution stance on Cyprus “in line with long-standing US desires”.
By the December 2004 EU Council, one cable described how the Turkish PM “strode through the EU corridors of power…with his semi-pro soccer player’s swagger and phalanx of sycophantic advisors”.
Erdogan could have been a strong contender for “European leader of the year”, said the cable, noting that he had won the start of Turkey’s accession negotiations and “broke loose three decades of frozen Turkish policy on Cyprus”, among other achievements.
It also noted that Erdogan faced internal accusations that he had sold out Turkish national interests in Cyprus.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot news outlet Kibris Postasi reported that US Ambassador to Nicosia Frank Urbancic called past and present Turkish Cypriot leaders Dervis Eroglu, Mehmet Ali Talat and Rauf Denktash to give them a heads up on the diplomatic cable leaks.
via Turkey seeks higher US profile in “Cypriot-led” peace talks – Cyprus Mail.