Tag: Dervis Eroglu

  • 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.

  • Turkish Cypriots promise more rallies

    Turkish Cypriots promise more rallies

    By Simon Bahceli Published on April 9, 2011

    AS FALLOUT continued yesterday over Thursday’s anti-austerity rally in the north, plans were already underway for yet another mass protest against Ankara’s economic restructuring.

    Opinion in the north was divided yesterday after demonstrators were seen on Thursday attempting to put up the Cyprus Republic flag on the walls of the Turkish ‘embassy’ in the north of Nicosia and carrying a banner calling on “occupier Turkey” to “F__k off from Cyprus”.

    Not impressed was Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, who told the press that such actions would weaken his negotiating position in talks with President Demetris Christofias.

    “Neither is Turkey an occupier, and nor is our parliament a puppet of the Turkish government,” Eroglu said, adding that the sentiments expressed by some at the rally were “definitely not representative the majority of Turkish Cypriots”. Most Turkish Cypriots, he said, wished to see Turkey remain as an effective guarantor.

    Others went further, calling for the arrest and punishment of those carrying “offensive” banners and flags. Foremost among these was leader of the small Freedom and Reform Party (ORP) who said he was willing to work in ‘parliament’ to devise laws to make such actions “severely punishable”.

    But despite Eroglu’s call for calm and unity, trade unions opposed to Ankara’s austerity package yesterday vowed to continue their protests, and received a boost when two largest left wing opposition parties announced joint plans for rally on April 24.

    Although billed as a pro-solution rally, the April 24 rally will carry a double message, aimed not just at putting pressure on the two Cypriot leaders, but also on Ankara to loosen its grip on the north.

    In a joint statement Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Ferdi Sabit Soyer and Communal Democracy Party (TDP) leader Mehmet Cakici said the rally, being held on the 7th anniversary of the Turkish Cypriot community’s ‘yes’ vote in referendum to the Annan reunification plan, would show the world the Turkish Cypriot community’s continuing commitment to a bizonal federal solution.

    Reaction in Turkey to Thursday’s rally was somewhat muted, with newspaper editors clearly taken aback by the animosity shown towards Ankara.

    Most papers reporting on the rally carried pictures of a young man seeking to place the Cyprus Republic flag in the grounds of the Turkish ‘embassy’. Prominent daily Hurriyet blamed “groups of provocateurs” for the tussles with police, while Posta observed that “tensions are rising” in the north of Cyprus as a result of regular anti-austerity demonstrations despite the fact that Turkey gave the Turkish Cypriots €440 million worth of aid this year alone.

    Despite his caustic condemnation of earlier rallies and his branding of Turkish Cypriot public sector workers as “ingrates”, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was yesterday yet to respond to the latest protest and the news of more.

    via Turkish Cypriots promise more rallies – Cyprus Mail.

  • Turkish Cypriots unhappy with isolation, austerity measures

    Turkish Cypriots unhappy with isolation, austerity measures

    ”]The protests drew an angry response from Ankara. [Reuters]Ongoing protests by thousands of Turkish Cypriots against austerity measures imposed by the leading National Unity Party (UBP) have triggered calls of concern among officials.

     

    After a March 2nd protest, the second in a month, Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu said he was worried about rising tension between Turkish Cyprus and Turkey.

    “Falling out with Turkey does not serve the purposes of Turkish Cypriots,” Eroglu said.

    “I believe the situation could escalate in mass rallies and potentially strikes, and other forms of civil protest,” said Hubert Faustmann, a University of Nicosia professor.

    The Mediterranean island of Cyprus was divided in 1974 after Turkey formed the state of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At a January 28th mass demonstration, a group of Turkish Cypriot protesters yelled anti-Turkey slogans. Some Turkish Cypriots attending he March 2nd protest waved flags of the Greek-run Republic of Cyprus.

    The breakaway republic in northern Cyprus is isolated from the international community and is highly dependent on economic aid from Turkey. After the late January protest, members of the Turkish government have been criticising Ankara’s financial handouts and some politicians are even demanding that it stop.

    “Who are these people?” said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to the protestors carrying anti-Turkey slogans. “They need to be brought before a court.”

    “Erdogan is adding fuel to the fire,” said Professor Ahmet Sozen of Eastern Mediterranean University. “He fails to understand that even though Turkish Cypriots are Turks, they are different.”

    Professor Muzaffer Senel of Istanbul Sehir University says that Erdogan’s speech had a negative effect on Turkish Cypriots and Turkey’s relations with them.

    He said that Erdogan should have considered that the anti-Turkey protestors are a small and extremist group. “We should [differentiate] between all protestors and those extremist groups swearing at Turkey.”

    Ankara gives northern Cyprus financial support worth of $600m every year. Sozen said that in the past four or five years, Turkey’s ruling party Justice and Development party (AKP) has demanded that the northern Cyprus government reform its financial and economic sectors.

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    Northern Cyprus, however, has been postponing the reforms.

    Andrekos Varnava, an expert from Cyprus’ Flinders University, does not believe that Turkey will stop giving support to northern Cyprus amid the anti-Turkey protests.

    “[Ankara] has invested decades of economic, political and military support there,” said Varnava. “It is perceived as strategically important to Turkey’s southern flank, and its ambitions to become a Mediterranean power.”

    According to some experts, Turkey has been focusing too much on Greek Cyprus at the cost of the northern part of the divided island. “For many years Turkey has been shaping its Greek Cyprus policy, while at the same time turning a blind eye to Turkish Cypriot society,” Senel said.

    This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

     

  • Eroglu Says Relations with Turkey Cannot Break Off

    Eroglu Says Relations with Turkey Cannot Break Off

    erogluTurkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu on Thursday sought to ease tensions with Turkey which have remained high since a mass demonstration on January 28, when a group of Turkish Cypriots protested an austerity package backed by Ankara. “Relations with the motherland cannot break off. Exchange of remarks and messages between the two countries must end in the shortest possible time in order to get out of this atmosphere,” Eroglu said.

    Turkey has reacted severely to the January protest and to the demonstrators who chanted slogans calling Turkey to “get its hands off the Turkish Cypriots.”

    Eroglu said his duty was to exert efforts “leave the issue behind,” adding that “warm relations with Turkey” should again be restored.

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  • Turkey seeks higher US profile in “Cypriot-led” peace talks

    Turkey seeks higher US profile in “Cypriot-led” peace talks

    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.

  • TRNC President: We Should Visit Geneva after A Great Preparation

    TRNC President: We Should Visit Geneva after A Great Preparation

    President Dervis Eroglu of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on Friday that they should visit Geneva after making a great preparation. Eroglu met with Turkish journalists at Turkish embassy in Stockholm after holding talks in Sweden.

    Eroglu said his talks in Sweden were positive and fruitful.

    TRNC President Eroglu said that it was decided in the tripartite meeting in New York that negotiations regarding the Cyprus issue would continue till January and the parties would meet in Geneva at the end of January.

    “We will meet with UN secretary general in Geneva,” he said. Eroglu said the parties should reach rapprochement in talks and they would work really hard till January.

    Eroglu said that negotiations have been continuing for six months, but no progress was achieved.

    Meanwhile, TRNC’s third representative office in EU was opened in Stockholm.

    Eroglu is expected to leave Sweden for TRNC this evening.

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