By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
We have been following the comments and discussions regarding the Summit on the Cyprus problem, whether it will be a four, or five-party meeting. The Turkish Cypriot side is talking about the four-party and the Greek Cypriot side is talking about the five-party option. While the North refers to the inclusion of the two sides, the UN, and Turkey and Greece as the Guarantor Countries, in the summit, the South talks about the inclusion of the UK as well. Interesting, since the South officially expressed its opposition to the concept of Guarantorship, and especially Turkey’s Guarantorship. Yet, now it says all Guarantors should be included. The North, on the other hand, says that Turkey’s Guarantorship cannot be discussed, but by not wanting one of the three Guarantors in the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, it also paves the way for a discussion of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee.
However, who is it that has a name in this process but remains ignored? The Turkish Cypriot Community, which lives in the North and has a say in the present and future of the island. The President of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the President of the ‘Republic of Cyprus’, Mr. Nicos Christodoulides, the Prime Minister of Greece and the leader of Albania met at the European Summit. The TRNC Foreign Minister Mr. Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu tried to console the Turkish Cypriot community by saying that “they did not meet officially, and President Tatar was present at a meeting of the Organization of Turkic States as the special guest of the President of Kyrgyzstan.” One cannot stop thinking when the TRNC Foreign Minister tries to trivialize this occasion as ‘unofficial’. Because although there is no official commercial activity between Turkey and the South, in real life, we know that thousands of cruise ships departing from the South carry Limassol-based tourists to Turkish ports without even saluting the North. Moreover, we also know that the rulers of the South, who have pushed for the transportation of tourists to Turkey are trying, in every possible way, to prevent the crossing of tourists from South to North on the official grounds of the Green Line Regulation. In other words, unofficial commercial activity with Turkey continues to increase but blows to such activities as tourism—officialized by the Green Line Regulation—and construction keep damaging the economy of the Turkish Cypriot Community. This is what we are experiencing in the reality of life. That is, as long as what is unofficial is real, calling it unofficial makes no difference.
The importance of the summit in Budapest is that it is linked with the steps to resolve the problems in EU-Turkey relations. The aim is to ensure that the ‘Republic of Cyprus’, as a member of the EU, will not come in the way of an attempt that will positively contribute to the improvement of this relationship. For this, an atmosphere in which the parties to the Cyprus problem can arrive at a mutual agreement is necessary. In other words, a ‘win-win’ environment is needed. However, thanks to the ‘new’ politics of the Tatar-UBP duo, one side is missing in this ‘win-win’ formula, and that is the institutional existence of the Turkish Cypriot Community. Upon his election as President, Mr. Christodoulides adopted an attitude whereby he would initiate ‘an opening-up to the Turkish Cypriots’. He then stated that he would ‘develop this opening-up policy by talking to people outside the institutional entity of the Turkish Cypriot Community’. And he did. Yet, in response, Tatar and the UBP government clammed up. They rejected all UN-based negotiation processes, including the talks on confidence-building measures. As a result, the South and the whole world started to directly address Turkey, bypassing the Turkish Cypriot Community. Thus, Mr. Christodoulides has laid another stone in his policy of rendering the Turkish Cypriot Community, one of the main arbiters of the island, ineffective in the settlement process and invisible in terms of its institutional presence. In other words, the phenomenon of Direct Trade and Direct Contact, two of Mr Tatar’s 3D’s [Editor’s note: reference to Ersin Tatar’s demand for direct flights, direct trade and direct contact], was dealt a severe blow with the use of the word, ‘unofficial’. Things have come to such a head that even the opposition groups and those Turkish Cypriots who are in favour of a solution but against Tatar’s policy said, “they will settle among themselves, and put a finalised text to be signed in front of them” in their criticism against Mr. Tatar and the UBP regarding the meeting in Budapest. The use of the word ‘unofficial’ by the power holders of the North cannot sweep under the carpet what the Tatar-UBP duo has led to. Because the serious economic relationship between the South and Turkey in the reality of life, which does not officially exist, reveals the importance of this. All of this is also linked with the way in which the will of the people and the principles of Constitutional Law are ignored in our domestic politics, just for the sake of coming to, or staying in power, as surfaced during the election of the Speaker of the Parliament. As long as this remains the case, the institutional existence of the community will also be undermined in the process of the solution of the Cyprus Problem.
Source: ANNIHILATION IN THE PIT OF HELL
