Government Spokesman Christos Stylianides Discusses Cyprus, EU Membership

By Janet McMahon

Christos Stylianides has been a busy man over the past year. As government spokesman, he has had to address such controversial issues as the proposed deployment on Cyprus of Russian surface-to-air missiles, the arrest and trial on reduced charges of two Israelis toting high-powered electronic equipment near a Cypriot military installation, and the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan carrying a forged Greek Cypriot passport.

Despite the obviously stressful nature of his job, with its constant demands and ever-changing appointments, however, upon finally being ushered into his office one encounters a gracious and friendly man who is as patient as his schedule permits him to be. The government spokesman seems to have mastered a variation on the theme of “hurry up and wait.”

Stylianides described the current situation on Cyprus as “deadlocked, primarily because of Turkish intransigence,” and expressed hope that the international community would help try to break the impasse.

After years of negotiations based on the goal of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s new proposal for a “confederation” is hardly acceptable to the Republic of Cyprus, which considers the original formula “the only solution that will lead to the unification of Cyprus,” Stylianides said.

He described the new Denktash proposal as “not really a confederation, but the basis for two protectorate states under Turkey and Greece. What the Turkish side wants,” he told the Washington Report, ‘is either a united Cyprus or a divided Cyprus—not a federation.”

Although Turkish Cypriot leader Denktash has threatened to annex northern Cyprus to Turkey if the Republic of Cyprus becomes a member of the EU, Stylianides sees EU accession as opening the way to a solution of the Cyprus problem. “Many difficult details could shrink in importance within the European framework,” he noted, adding that a solution might be “simpler to achieve because the EU is a new organization which could help solve our ethnic problems.”

Nor would EU accession benefit Greek Cypriots to the exclusion of their Turkish compatriots, Stylianides argued. “It is the Turkish Cypriots who will gain more,” he maintained, “because the Cypriot government is ready to support growth in the economy of northern Cyprus, which will also get a greater share of EU funds, just as the northern and southern regions of Italy now do.

“Turkish would become an official EU language,” he continued, “and a European vision for Cyprus will help Turkish Cypriots join the EU family—and also will help Turkey insist that Muslims can live side by side with Christians.”

The government spokesman said that “Cyprus supports Turkey joining the EU, because it will help the relationship between Greece and Turkey, as well as Cyprus. But Turkey’s current problems with human rights, etc., keep it outside the EU framework,” he pointed out, adding that “any country that meets its criteria can join the EU.

“If the Cyprus problem is not solved by the time of EU entry, accession could be a catalyst” to a solution, Stylianides predicted. “But Cyprus will continue to promote a solution to the problem before accession takes place.”

Janet McMahon is the managing editor of the Washington Report.