Cypriot Foreign Minister Proposes Demilitarization As Solution to Age-Old Conflict

By Ghada Khouri

The Cypriot government is stepping up its efforts to find a political settlement to the intercommunal conflict on the eastern Mediterranean island as it pushes for adherence to the European Union. Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides drove the point home during a mid-February visit to Washington aimed at promoting his administration’s vision for a solution to the Cypriot question.

An island country of just over 3,500 square miles, Cyprus has been a stage for traditional Turkish-Greek enmities. At present Greek Cypriots occupy 63 percent of the island and Turkish Cypriots and recently arrived settlers from the nearby Turkish mainland occupy the rest.

In a bid to reduce tensions, on Feb. 17 Kasoulides presented to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright a plan to demilitarize the island. The plan calls for a U.N. Security Council-mandated international force to maintain peace between the Greek and Turkish entities in what he called a “bizonal, bicommunal federation.”

The multinational force would include members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as contingents from Greece and Turkey. “This force can replace the Turkish troops and the Cypriot forces,” Kasoulides said, adding that this would free up Cypriot defense funds to be used to support the international troops stationed on the island.

The government of Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides sees such a formula as a solution to the conflict that has eluded the international community for over 25 years. “A demilitarized Cyprus will stop this Turkish obsession coming from mainland Turkey that Cyprus can potentially become a hostile country to their southern flank and to the maritime routes in the eastern Mediterranean ports of Turkey,” Kasoulides argued.

Making up a minority of 18 percent, the Turkish Cypriot community has traditionally expressed concerns about its security within a single Cypriot political entity with an 80 percent Greek majority. The Cypriot foreign minister argued that demilitarization would help quell animosities born out of Turkey’s 1974 military occupation of 37 percent of northern Cyprus following a coup by Greek nationalists seeking to unite the island with Greece.

Albright welcomed Kasoulides’ peace proposal, pledging that the United States “will continue to work with both sides in public and in private” to encourage them “to negotiate creatively and flexibly.”

She also praised the Cypriot government’s “courageous decision” not to take delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia, saying it had “opened new opportunities to find a resolution for the Cyprus problem.”

The plan to purchase the missiles had exacerbated friction with Turkey, which threatened to destroy the weapons if they ever reached the island. To avert a potential confrontation, Cyprus agreed to deploy them on Greece’s island of Crete instead, a move which Turkey says is also unacceptable.

President Bill Clinton’s special envoy for Cyprus, Richard Holbrooke, commended the Cypriot decision in a meeting with Kasoulides, describing it as “a significant step toward…laying the framework for progress in the future.” Holbrooke, who was the prime mover in brokering a peace accord in Bosnia, held out little hope that Turkey would willingly reciprocate. “The current disposition of the Turkish side makes progress extraordinarily difficult,” he said, adding that “a breakthrough would require the cooperation, collaboration and active involvement of both sides.”

Cyprus now hopes its decision will prompt the United States to urge Turkey to revive negotiations for a political settlement. Kasoulides said he hoped the U.S. can convince the Turks “that the time has come for them to withdraw, or start withdrawing, their army from Cyprus.”

But just as relations appeared to be thawing as a result of President Clerides’ conciliatory move, Cyprus found itself in the midst of the Abdullah Ocalan affair. On Feb. 16 the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a separatist struggle in southeastern Turkey since 1984, was whisked away from Kenya and handed over to Turkish authorities.

He had been harbored by the Greek Embassy in Nairobi and was carrying a Cypriot passport bearing the name of a Cypriot journalist known for his support of the Kurdish cause.

Sympathetic Denial

Kasoulides denied any Cypriot involvement in the Kurdish question and announced that Cyprus’ attorney general was conducting an inquiry into the passport issue. “Cyprus has enough problems of her own,” he said, “although I want to admit that we have sympathy for the Kurdish people and for their struggle for human rights and cultural identity.”

The event gave substance to charges by Rauf Denktash, who heads the Cypriot Turkish entity recognized only by Turkey. Denktash has repeatedly accused Greek Cypriots of harboring PKK members. He renewed his accusations in the aftermath of Ocalan’s capture, dashing hopes that the missile decision might improve relations between the two sides.

Undaunted by the Ocalan affair, Cyprus is intent on pursuing its peace efforts, which are largely motivated by its goal to join the European Union. As it lays the groundwork for its entry into the trade bloc, the continued political division of the island stands in the way of its European aspirations because of the EU’s insistence that Cyprus participate in accession talks as a single political unit.

The talks are expected to conclude by the year 2001, with the decisions reached subject to ratification by national parliaments over a two-year period. Cyprus hopes eventually to enter the Union in January 2003. And it is hoping for the support of the United States and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to find a solution to the ongoing conflict that threatens its bid to join the European community.

Recognizing that “Turkey is a country vital for the interests of the West”—and particularly the United States in light of the Turkish-Israeli military alliance—Kasoulides stressed the importance of resolving the Cyprus question during his official foray into Washington. “Our part of the world is vital,” he said. “One cannot invest in bringing peace and stability to the Middle East or the Balkans and leave the triangle between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus a potential site of conflict and friction.”

Ghada Khouri is a Washington, DC-based journalist specializing in Middle East affairs.