Category: Main Issues

  • EU provides aid for Northern Cypriots

    EU provides aid for Northern Cypriots

    The EU’s latest funding package for Northern Cyprus aims to help the process of reunification, but critics argue aid in itself won’t resolve the impasse.

    By Menekse Tokyay for Southeast European Times in Istanbul – 29/06/11

    photo  Turkey's EU accession negotiations have faltered over the Cyprus issue. [Reuters]
    photo Turkey's EU accession negotiations have faltered over the Cyprus issue. Reuters
    The European Commission approved 26.5m euros in funding for the Turkish Cypriot community Monday (June 27th), with the goal of promoting confidence building and reconciliation between the two parts of the divided island. Beneficiaries of the new funding will include civil society organisations, SMEs, farmers, schools and villages.

     

    In a press release, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele emphasised the importance of the Commission’s activities in light of ongoing reunification talks.

    “These 26.5m euros demonstrate the continued commitment of the EU to the Turkish Cypriot community and to a Cyprus settlement,” he stated.

    But with Turkey’s EU negotiations blocked over Cyprus and the peace process slow to yield fruit, questions remain as to the effectiveness of the EU aid.

    According to Hugh Pope, director of the Turkey/Cyprus Project at the International Crisis Group, the latest tranche of EU aid reassures Turkish Cypriot hopes of one day joining the EU and prepares them for EU membership.

    “This is obviously a continuation of previous commitments, and is not in itself a reason for the talks to achieve new energy,” he told SETimes.

    In 2004, the EU committed itself to providing 259m euros in aid to Turkish Cypriots. By the end of 2010, 40% (110 euros) was spent. Prior to the latest tranche, only 1.5m euros had been approved for this year.

    “This financial support means the continuation of the EU’s commitment made after the 2004 referendum for providing 259m euros in aid for Northern Cyprus, to improve the infrastructure and enable greater foreign investment,” says Erdem Aydin, a researcher at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV).

    Ata Atun, a professor at Near East University in Nicosia, believes EU funding has done little to contribute to peace on the island.

    “The EU has lost colossal credibility in the eyes of Turkish Cypriots due to its decision taken after the 2004 Annan Plan, especially the non-implementation of the Green Line Regulation for seven years on the grounds of Greek objections, as well as of the Direct Trade Regulation,” Atun said.

    Distrust of the EU drains the positive impact generated by the funding, which in any case is low compared to the financial contributions made by Turkey, Atun said. He also criticised the EU for aiding specific NGOs while excluding many others.

    “This funding does not cover all of the Turkish Cypriot community, but only Turkish Cypriots who were citizens of Cyprus before 1974 and the NGOs founded by them, which offends deeply the Turkish community,” Atun explained to SETimes.

    “The majority of this aid has been spent for the salaries and the rent charges of the EU bureaucrats,” he added.

    Aydin disagrees, pointing out that 1.5m euros was approved earlier this year to fund the EU Scholarship Programme, which sends Turkish Cypriot students to study in the EU.

    “We have personally experienced that different NGOs from various tendencies benefit from this funding,” he told SETimes.

    This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

    via EU provides aid for Northern Cypriots (SETimes.com).

  • Armenians peel back the layers of a painful past

    Armenians peel back the layers of a painful past

    Memoir helps Turks and Armenians explore their identities and the legacy of the 1915 genocide

    * Guillaume Perrier

    * Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 28 June 2011 13.59 BST

    People attend a ceremony marking the 96t

    Painful past... a memorial to the genocide. Photograph: Vahan Stepanyan/Getty
    Painful past… a memorial to the genocide. Photograph: Vahan Stepanyan/Getty

    In 2004, when the lawyer Fethiyé Cetin published My Grandmother: A Memoir, she breached the wall of silence in Turkey. The book tells the story of her Armenian ancestor Heranouch, who was renamed Seher. She was kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam at the time of the 1915 genocide carried out by the Turkish nationalist party (CUP). Her granddaughter, a human rights campaigner and counsel for the family of Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist murdered in 2007, was one of the first to publicise her Armenian origins, in defiance of the taboo that still paralyses much of Turkey.

    Hundreds of similar stories have since surfaced, revealing facts that had conveniently been forgotten. Scattered all over the country were Armenian descendants, who had survived the slaughter but at the price of being converted to Islam and losing their identity. They are still commonly known as the “remains of the sword”.

    From grandmothers Cetin has turned her attention, in partnership with sociologist Ayse Gül Altinay, to their descendants, all those who two generations later are gradually uncovering their past and questioning official accounts and the silence imposed on their lives. “Where are the converted Armenians?” Altinay writes in the afterword to Les Petits-Enfants. “You may pass them in schools, in the corridors of the National Assembly, in hospitals and factories, in the fields, in the office of a police chiefs or in a mosque. They could be driving your bus, or the nurse who took your blood sample, a journalist whose column you like, the engineer who installed your computer […] or the imam at your neighbourhood mosque,” she adds. The authors discovered dozens of such people, but only a few were prepared to tell their story, and even fewer agreed to reveal their identity. The book contains 24 personal accounts, portraits of families that all have a hidden Armenian side.

    Yildiz Önen, another human rights campaigner, agreed to come out and tell her story in her own name. She was born in Derik, a small town in the Kurdish region of eastern Turkey and “brought up as a Kurd”. The story of her grandmother, the daughter of a rich Armenian trader who survived the genocide with one of his sons, “resembles that of thousands of other women”. She was kidnapped by a Kurd, married and forcibly converted. “My father was born of this union,” Önen says. “My grandmother raised two sons, one in keeping with Armenian tradition, the other as a Kurd. So my father, a conservative Muslim, had an Armenian brother.”

    As in other cases Dink’s murder prompted a reappraisal of her hidden identity. “At that point I started thinking I too should feel Armenian,” she says. Feeling Armenian also means being seen differently, even by her own family. “Some cousins are open-minded, others less so,” she adds.

    After the genocide the second generation of survivors, regardless of whether they stayed in Turkey or emigrated, was brought up in a state of denial, the better to fit in and to stifle painful memories. “As if our difference was a stain, a taboo, a source of shame,” says Gülsad, who found out by chance when he was about 15 that his grandmother Satinik was Armenian.

    Now some grandchildren are demanding an explanation. Cetin estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of Turks with at least one Armenian ancestor. Their identity is often “hybrid”, a mixture of Turkish, Kurdish, Alevi, Armenian and other origins. Some stayed Armenian, despite converting to Islam. Others say they are Kurds but are converting back to Christianity.

    “There is an incredible diversity in the way people define themselves,” the lawyer says. For almost a century the existence of these hidden survivors was not only hushed up by the Turkish government, but forgotten by the Armenian community. The grandchildren’s memories are resurrecting forgotten victims of the 20th century’s first genocide. This account lifts a taboo as part of a historic process of reconciliation. By investigating family and village history, Turkish intellectuals may have found the means to counter the official revisionism that whitewashes the Armenian question.

    This article originally appeared in Le Monde

    via Armenians peel back the layers of a painful past | World news | Guardian Weekly.

  • A legitimate and legal intervention (1974) – A golden opportunity missed (2004)

    A legitimate and legal intervention (1974) – A golden opportunity missed (2004)

    The Greek and Greek Cypriot politicians still try to make an anti-Turkey propaganda and a diversion within the EU (ABhaber confirmed that yesterday). Let’s underline this: Turkey doesn’t occupy Cyprus. Turkey intervened in Cyprus in order to save the Turkish Cypriots. Last year Carl Bildt answered to some Greek politicians at the EU parliament that Turkey intervened in Cyprus because the Turkish Cypriots were being killed. And those Greeks didn’t answer, because they didn’t know what to answer. Why? Because they are so used to not facing with objective statements about the Cypriot issue.

    tsk

    Turkey’s military intervention in Cyprus was legal. Anyway, if Turkey wished it, it could have seized the whole island. But it didn’t do so. Because its aim was only to save the Turkish Cypriots.

    Therefore Turkey doesn’t occupy Cyprus (by the way, Turkey’s legal intervention happened in 1974, whereas the Greek Cypriots became illegally EU members in 2004).

    Furthermore, if the Annan peace plan was accepted by the Greek side, today the 35 000 Turkish soldiers would already have gone. Because that was written in that plan for the reunification of Cyprus, which was the solution for the peace.

    Let’s remind that that peace plan was the plan both of the United Nations and the European Union.

    But as that solution was not accepted by the Greek Cypriot side, the Turkish soldiers had to stay in Northern Cyprus.

    In other words, the Turkish troops are still in Northern Cyprus to safeguard the security of the Turkish Cypriots, because the Greek Cypriots voted “No” to the Annan peace plan in 2004.

    1974: a legitimate and legal intervention. 2004: a golden opportunity missed.

    Your sincerely,

    Cem

    PS. Besides, the behaviour of the Greek Cypriot leaders is suspicious and justifies the presence of the Turkish troops in Northern Cyprus.

    Let’s remember that some Turkish Cypriots (and a Turkish basketball team from Turkey) were recently attacked by many nationalist Greek Cypriots who acted with impunity.

    Why with impunity?

    On the one hand because the Greek Cypriot government didn’t do anything to prevent these events from occuring.

    On the other hand, because after the attack against the Turkish basketball players Mr Christofias solely said that the rushers were fools.

    What a strange statement about a racist and violent act. I mean, he didn’t condemn it. Is not that assessment suspicious? That unbelievable stance of the leader of the Greek Cypriots – who was openly against the Annan peace plan in 2004 – is revealing but also a proof that there’s a real risk for the Turkish Cypriots. The president Mr Christofias didn’t condemn the barbarian attack against the Turkish sportsmen.

    Therefore, given that Mr Christofias (following the Greek Cypriot religious leaders) once more turned out not to be reassuring, owing to the silence of the Greek Cypriot government, and owing to the recent scandalous and dangerous statements of the powerful Greek Cypriot religious leaders about Cyprus (why do they make political statements? Why do they enumerate their “demands”? Are they politicians? Well why don’t the EU parliament and the EU commission (as well as the EU media) deal with that serious problem instead of tirelessly keeping on criticising Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots? Is not the EU worried of the weight and influence of the Greek Cypriot Church in politics?), the Turkish soldiers have the legitimacy and the duty to stay in Northern Cyprus until an enduring solution is found.

    They represent the security of the Turkish Cypriots.

    PPS. The Greek Cypriot leaders and the Greek Cypriot Church see the Turkish Cypriots as second class Cypriot citizens. Due to the dangerous negative nationalism of the Greek Cypriot state, if the Turkish troops left the island that would mean deserting the Turkish Cypriots.

    via Turkey » Blog Archive » A legitimate and legal intervention (1974) – A golden opportunity missed (2004).

  • Western Armenians demand Turkey’s recognition of Genocide

    Western Armenians demand Turkey’s recognition of Genocide

    73280PanARMENIAN.Net – On June 25, Moscow hosted Western Armenians’ convention, with 100 delegates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Adler, Krasnodar, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Vladivostok, Crimea and Abkhazia attending.

    39 Russian delegates to participate in The Third Congress of Western Armenians due December 2011 in Paris were selected during the convention, Hyusisapayl Moscow-based newspaper reported.

    “National Council of Western Armenians will defend the legal rights of the descendants of Western Armenians in international organizations, negotiate with Turkish authorities and other interested parties to achieve Turkey’s recognition of Armenian Genocide as well as condemnation of 1915 massacres and compensation of moral, material and territorial damages,” the statement issued during the convention stressed.

    via Western Armenians demand Turkey’s recognition of Genocide – PanARMENIAN.Net.

  • Political Landscape: Schiff still fighting for genocide resolution

    Political Landscape: Schiff still fighting for genocide resolution

    By Bill Kisliuk, [email protected]

    June 17, 2011 | 5:46 p.m.

    Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and other advocates for a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide are taking a new tack this year, seeking both a genocide recognition vote and approval of a measure condemning religious discrimination against Armenian Christians in Turkey.

    A strategic ally that allows the U.S. to operate a key military base on its soil, Turkey has been an implacable foe of official U.S. recognition of the death of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915-23. Schiff has tried for several years to get such a measure passed.

    On Tuesday, Schiff and Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) reintroduced the genocide resolution. Separately, Schiff co-sponsored a resolution by Reps. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) demanding that Turkey return property that once belonged to the Armenian Church and to end religious discrimination against Christians.

    Armenian Christians represent about 1% of the population in Turkey.

    “We’re taking a little different approach this year,” Schiff said. “I think this improves our chances of making progress.”

    The second resolution may draw support from more lawmakers than the genocide measure has, he added.

    Last year, Congress approved a resolution by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) calling for greater religious freedom in Cyprus. The Turkish military, which occupies about one-third of Cyprus, has been accused of desecrating churches and restricting access to religious sites.

    “We think having more than one iron in the fire will be a productive strategy,” Schiff said.

    Lincoln McCurdy, president of the Turkish of Coalition of America, said the new resolution is “totally distorted” and that the genocide recognition measure has a smaller chance of passing than it did in the last Congress.

    “This is a completely new Congress, more domestically focused,” McCurdy said. “I think our efforts in trying to have balanced dialogue are paying off, and the leadership is not as passionate about it as [former Speaker Nancy] Pelosi was.”

    McCurdy said the Turkish resolution fails to recognize historic persecution or disenfranchisement of Muslims in the region, including Armenia and Greece.

    “Our position is, we wish there was more effort to bring the Turkish and Armenian people together,” he said.

    Schiff said passing the genocide recognition resolution remains a high priority, not only for his Armenian American constituents, but for the United States’ human rights record.

    “This is too important a cause to give up,” Schiff said. “We’ll keep fighting for recognition until we’re successful, and we will be.”

    Congressman honors Armenian church leader

    Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) on Thursday honored Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, former Primate of the Armenian Church of North America, by reading into the Congressional Record comments on Hovsepian’s 60th year in the priesthood.

    A native of Lebanon, Hovsepian came to the United States in 1956, and later led the Armenian church in Canada . He became Archbishop of the church, which now has its Western Diocese headquarters in Burbank, in 1971, and launched several Armenian schools in Southern California.

    Schiff commended Hovsepian “for his selfless dedication and commitment to the Armenian community.”

    Assemblyman takes heat for ‘Soprano’ remark

    via Political Landscape: Schiff still fighting for genocide resolution – Burbank Leader.

  • The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story

    The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story

    Long talks have got little nearer to solving Europe’s oldest “frozen conflict”

    Mar 31st 2011 | NICOSIA | from the print edition

    20110402 eum988GLOOM has settled over the Cyprus talks. Under a UN special envoy, Alexander Downer, the Greek-Cypriot president (Demetris Christofias) and his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart (Dervish Eroglu since March 2010), have held 100 meetings since September 2008. But politics intrudes: general elections are due in Cyprus (in May) and Turkey (June). Attention will then switch to Cyprus’s European Union presidency in 2012 and its presidential election early in 2013.

    After meeting the two leaders in Geneva in January, the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed grave concern about the talks’ slow progress. Yet Mr Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, is breezily upbeat. He told an Economist Cyprus conference last month that more had been achieved than was widely realised. He noted broad agreement on such long-term issues as the structure of a federated Cyprus. The toughest disputes are all short term: property, territory and security. Yet Mr Downer says the real question is not whether a deal is possible but whether the two sides truly want one.

    And this is where pessimism kicks in. Mr Christofias baldly told the same conference that “progress has been zero since Mr Eroglu was elected.” He preferred dealing with the man whom Mr Eroglu defeated, Mehmet Ali Talat. His negotiator, George Iacovou, thinks Turkey does not want a deal at present. Most of the Greek-Cypriot media are rejectionist. Turkish-Cypriots have staged protests against Turkey, their sponsor, but these have mostly fizzled. Mr Eroglu’s negotiator, Kudret Ozersay, says that “everyone wants peace, but not everyone wants a compromise.” Without more progress, he adds, he might quit.

    The talks cannot go on for ever. Time is making them harder. Younger Cypriots have no memory of a united island and the “green line” is coming to look like permanent partition. Mr Christofias seems ready to run again in 2013 if there is a chance of a deal. But without clearer signs of progress, he could well lose—just as Mr Talat did. Is there scope for unilateral gestures? The International Crisis Group suggests several, including Turkey opening its ports to Cypriot trade, Cyprus allowing charter flights to Ercan airport in the north or a supervised return of the ghost resort of Varosha to its Greek-Cypriot owners. But in today’s bitter climate, none looks feasible.

    What if there is no deal? Many Greek-Cypriots shrug their shoulders: they are now in the EU and the euro. But Mr Downer warns those who want the talks to fail to be careful what they wish for. The economy suffers from the island’s division. And a failure to settle the Cyprus problem can only make Turkey’s strained relations with the EU worse. Sadly, there is little the EU can do about this. It is perhaps telling that the Greek for give and take is “take and give”.

    from the print edition | Europe

    via The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story | The Economist.