Ankara, KKTC say hope remains for solution in Cyprus

Turkish President Abdullah Gül stated that the UN-mandated negotiation process between the Turkish and Greek sides of the island is ongoing and is of key importance, declining to comment on alternative suggestions for a solution, during an official visit to the Netherlands. Claims appeared in Turkish media that Ankara and Lefkoşa are preparing unilateral plans, in the face of Greek Cyprus’ unwillingness to compromise on a political solution.

Turkey’s Milliyet daily, attributing unnamed official sources, reported on Monday that if a solution could still not be found by the time that Greek Cyprus takes the EU presidency on July 1, Ankara and the Turkish side would initiate a plan B, starting to exert unilateral diplomatic efforts for the international recognition of Turkish side under the name of the “Turkish Cypriot State.” The Turkish Cypriot State was how the KKTC was called in former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s 2004 Cyprus Plan, as one of the federal units under a United Cyprus Republic, together with a Greek Cypriot State.

One foreign ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also stated that there is still time to find an alternative solution, in the form of a plan B, which would include unilateral efforts by Ankara and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) before the negotiation process is concluded. “The most important thing is a political solution based on a negotiated agreement between the two sides. Surely, the decisions that the parties would take based upon the acknowledgement that both sides have equal ownership of the island are the key,” the diplomat expressed. Political observers claim that a new phase will begin in regard to the Cyprus problem because of the low possibility that a common agreement will be reached after the Greek side takes the helm of the EU presidency starting from July 1. Assuming the EU presidency is widely expected to play into the hands of Greek Cyprus to impose its own position during the negotiations, which would make Turkey and the KKTC put their efforts into a unilateral solution.

Expressing the same concerns, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also stated in January, “I am concerned that opportunities to successfully conclude negotiations will be limited once the Republic of Cyprus takes up the presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2012.” KKTC President Derviş Eroğlu claimed on Monday that a multilateral conference which would include the guarantor states of Greece and Turkey is the last chance for a common solution for the island. “In the case that a multilateral conference would fail to convene, we [Turkish Cypriots] will assess the situation within our own parliament and with our own people,” Eroğlu noted. But he said that it is still not the right time to talk about alternative plans because the UN negotiation process is underway.

A previous multilateral conference was held in March 2004 in Bürgenstock in an attempt to find a consensus with Cypriot leaders regarding a UN plan to reunite Cyprus, named after the then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The conference convened the two administrations of Turkish and Greek Cypriots, as well as Turkey and Greece as guarantor states.

Greece, Turkey and Britain would have to take part in any final agreement. They are guarantor powers of the island under a complex treaty which granted the former British colony independence in 1960.

Cyprus was divided when Turkey intervened after a Greek-inspired coup seeking to annex the island to Greece. Seeds of conflict were sown earlier, prompting the dispatch of a UN peacekeeping mission, now one of the world's longest-serving, in 1964.