Hard-liner's victory in North Cyprus dims reunification hopes

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Cypriot leaders to continue reunification talks after Sunday's presidential elections on the Turkish side of the divided island.

"It cannot be the Turkish side that escapes from the negotiation table. If there is a party that keeps [away] from the table, it should be them [Greek Cypriots]," Erdoğan said in an interview late on Saturday with private television channel Kanal 24.

"My sincere wish is for the continuation of talks with the same commitment. We are seriously committed to the completion of these talks," Erdoğan said.

"Mr. Talat brought the negotiations to a very important level. I hope we will be able to conclude them by the end of this year through negotiations which will resume after the elections. We should preserve our commitment with the spirit of win-win," Erdoğan said.

"I am sure our brothers in [northern Cyprus] will use their democratic will for the continuation of this [peace] process," the prime minister added. "They should not spoil the future of Cyprus for simple benefits."

The presidential elections held in northern Cyprus cannot be considered a 'free vote', writes Yusuf Kanli in an opinion piece published by the Hurriyet daily.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered pre-prepared questions in a manner which clearly favoured Talat, he argues.

"He stopped just short of ordering Turkish Cypriots to vote for Talat and made it clear that, should they vote for Eroğlu, not only might the Cyprus talks be derailed, there might be complications in Turkey's economic and financial assistance to northern Cyprus, and the economy of the territory might be very seriously affected by that," Kanli argues.

The author further argues that during the past two weeks, more than a dozen parliamentarians and mayors of the ruling AKP party were heavily campaigning in Northern Cyprus. An agency used by AKP to organise its own election campaigns and public events assisted Talat by offering the services of 40 campaign experts and providing campaign material at no cost, Kanli points out.

In spite of the fact that the North Republic of Cyprus is not recognized by any country except Turkey, the European Commission issued a statement today (19 April), commenting on the elections held in that part of the island.

"The Commission and the European Union are fully committed to support efforts at reaching a settlement of the Cyprus problem, which would be to the benefit of Cyprus and the EU in general. Mr Talat and Mr Christofias had achieved important progress in shaping a settlement that would reunite the island on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. This was highly appreciated by President Barroso.”

“Now that Mr Eroglu has been elected leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, it is crucial that the settlement talks go on. The Commission encourages Mr Eroglu to continue in a constructive spirit the efforts towards settlement and reunification. The Commission will continue to offer full support to the leaders' efforts towards a comprehensive settlement.”

“There is no alternative to a solution to the Cyprus problem. The status quo is in no one's interest. Turkish Cypriots are EU citizens and should enjoy all benefits of EU Membership as soon as possible. It is in the hands of both leaders to make this happen," the Commission concludes.

The victory of Derviş Eroğlu is more a blow to the EU than a setback for Turkey’s EU bid, said Bahadir Kaleagasi, international coordinator forTÜSİAD, the main representative organisation of the Turkish business.

Speaking to EurActiv Germany, Kaleagasi stressed the commitment by Eroğlu to carry on the talks for the re-unification of the island, adding that his organisation will encourage him in this direction.

He said that the common interest of business organisations in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, because in the case the Cyprus problem was solved, there would be more potential for trade, investments, tourism and joint projects in the fields of energy, information society and security.

Asked what can EU-leaders and the Commission do to solve the Cyprus conflict, Kaleagasi said that it had been a “historical error” of accepting Cyprus as EU member without a solution of the problem of the island’s division.

He blamed the Greek Cypriot government for making use of its veto power at the EU Council of Ministers to block, in his words, several chapters of Turkey's EU accession negotiations. The pretext, he said, is the lack of Turkish permission for access to the ports of Northern Cyprus.

“This requires a legal settlement which is easy to elaborate if the talks make progress. This is just an irrelevant pretext compared with the huge challenges and interests that the EU has in better integrating Turkey to the European political, economic and security system.”

“Moreover, paradoxically, the chapters blocked by Greek Cyprus cover essential economic issues on which the European business community asks progress to better protect European economic interests,” the TÜSİAD representative concluded.

The “election” of Eroglu at the illegal elections in the occupied part of Cyprus is a negative development, Stefanos Stefanou, spokesperson to the President of Cyprus said.

“Taking into account Mr. Eroglu’s well known and longstanding positions against a federation and in favour of the establishment of two independent states in Cyprus, very serious problems could occur for the negotiations.”

“Our side remains committed on the agreed basis for a solution of the Cyprus issue, as it was agreed with the former leader and negotiator of the Turkish Cypriot community Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat. The agreed basis of the solution is a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, as described in the relevant Resolutions of the UN Security Council, for a state with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality,” Stefanou further said.

“We expect the international community to exert influence, or even pressure on the new leader of the Turkish Cypriot community for the continuation of the negotiations on the correct basis. We also expect the international community to exert pressure on Turkey so that it respects the UN Resolutions and the decisions of the European Union regarding Cyprus,” the spokesperson went on.

“In light of these new developments the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Demetris Christofias will be addressing a letter today to the UN Secretary General, to the five permanent members of the Security Council, to the President of the European Council Mr. Van Rompuy, to the President of the European Commission Mr. Barroso, and to our 26 partners in the EU,” Stefanou concluded.

Cyprus Ambassador to the EU Andreas Mavroyiannis told EurActiv that from Cyprus the main message is that it was important to keep “the process going”.

“We are not happy. We see it as a step backwards. But it’s up to the Turkish Cypriot community to choose their leader. We are going to do our utmost to continue the effort. We don’t believe that there is no alternative to this.”

Asked about the EU-Turkey negotiation chapters which Cyprus has blocked, Mavroyannis insisted that it was not Cyprus, but the EU as a whole which had frozen eight chapters of the accession negotiations with Turkey, because Turkey does not comply with the Ankara protocol, because it does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus and is blocking his country from joining international organisations.

But the Ambassador conceded that last December, Cyprus had decided to introduce additional benchmarks, before the opening of six more chapters.