In divided Cyprus, new leader Christofias energizes unity bid

[Harold F. Schiffman]

 from the March 20, 2008 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0320/p06s01-woeu.html

In divided Cyprus, new leader Christofias energizes unity bid

The Greek Cypriot president meets Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Talat
Fnriday to discuss the renewal of reunification talks.
By Michael Theodoulou

Nicosia, Cyprus

Rarely does the United States show keen interest in a distant country half
the size of New Jersey. Nor does Washington usually welcome a communist
election victory. But in Demetris Christofias, the new Greek Cypriot
leader, the US and European Union see an opportunity to end the division
of Cyprus a conflict that has stymied mediators since 1974. Now, for the
first time in decades, there are conciliatory leaders on both sides of the
divide. On Friday, Mr. Christofias will meet Mehmet Ali Talat, the leader
of the estranged Turkish Cypriot community, to resuscitate moribund talks.
It will be their first meeting since Christofias, a Soviet-educated
builder's son with the common touch, came to power last month.

"Solving the Cyprus problem is the first priority of our government," he
declared at his inauguration. Mr. Talat in turn welcomed Christofias's
victory over hard-liner Tassos Papadopoulos. "We have every reason to
expect a solution by the end of the year," he said. A solution would
benefit not only the island, but international interests as well. The
island's division is a major obstacle to Turkey's ambition of joining the
European Union. This frustrates Washington's strategic aim of bringing
closer to the West a country it values as a secular Muslim democracy and
NATO ally which borders on Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

The Cyprus problem is also an obstacle to rapprochement between NATO
partners Greece and Turkey, despite the remarkable improvement in their
bilateral relations in the past decade. And jousting between Ankara and
Nicosia has hampered EU-NATO cooperation in trouble spots such as
Afghanistan and Kosovo. There are high expectations that Christofias and
Talat will announce a goodwill first step Friday: the opening of a
crossing point in Ledra Street, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare in the
heart of Nicosia.

Establishing a connection at the core of Europe's last divided capital
would be of practical as well as psychological and symbolic importance. It
would boost confidence and improve the atmosphere for the difficult
negotiations ahead on substantive issues.

Why Cyprus is divided

Cyprus has been split on ethnic lines since Turkey invaded the north in
1974 after a short-lived Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military
junta then ruling Greece. The Turkish Cypriots, who made up 18 percent of
the island's population, were left holding 37 percent of the territory.
Some 35,000 Turkish troops remain in northern Cyprus, occupying part of an
EU member state that Ankara does not recognize. The Greek and Turkish
Cypriot communities have long agreed the island should be reunited as a
federation in which both communities would enjoy broad autonomy.

For decades, moderate Greek Cypriot leaders had to negotiate with Rauf
Denktash, the long-serving, hard-line former Turkish Cypriot leader whose
obduracy was blamed for the failure of most United Nations-sponsored
settlement efforts. He was ousted in 2005 by Talat, who wanted to steer
his community out of its international isolation: the self-declared
Turkish Cypriot state is recognized only by Turkey. But a year before Mr.
Denktas left the scene, the Greek Cypriots had elected Papadopoulos, who
led the Greek Cypriots in an overwhelming rejection of a UN reunification
plan in 2004.

Christofias was elected on a swell of public dissatisfaction with the
hard-line policies of Papadopoulos, who insisted the blueprint, known as
the Annan plan, would satisfy Turkish demands at the expense of Greek
Cypriot rights. The plan was backed by the Turkish Cypriots in a separate
referendum, but they effectively were left out in the cold a week later
when Cyprus, which is internationally represented by the more prosperous
Greek Cypriots, entered the EU as a divided state. Peace talks have been
deadlocked since.

This year's window of opportunity

This year represents a narrow window of opportunity for advancing those
talks: There are no elections pending in northern Cyprus, Greece or
Turkey, and the EU isn't due to assess Turkey's obligations to Cyprus
until 2009. The patience of the UN, weary of its Sisyphean role in Cyprus,
has also worn thin, but it is now clearly committed to putting its muscle
behind another big and possibly last push for a settlement.

"Leaving the Cyprus problem unsolved is no longer a comfortable status
quo. New dynamics are poisoning domains far beyond Cyprus, from EU import
policy to Afghanistan," said the International Crisis Group, a
Brussels-based think tank, in a recent report.

Popular support for peace

Last month's election suggests that a majority of Greek Cypriots, who
rejected the UN reunification plan four years ago, are eager for a
solution.

Papadopoulos was unexpectedly defeated in the first round. The run-off
vote a week later was contested by Christofias and a right-wing politician
who also promising an early resumption of reunification talks. In other
words, more than 60 percent of the Greek Cypriot electorate backed
moderate candidates, vindicating their assertion that in 2004 they
rejected a particular plan and not a solution itself.

Papadopoulos's opponents had successfully argued that his uncompromising
stance in the past four years was entrenching the island's partition and
isolating Cyprus in the EU.

Yet new negotiations will again face a huge task in resolving substantive
issues such as the redistribution of territory, property rights, the
return of displaced people, constitutional aspects of the federation, and
security arrangements.

"We want a workable solution as soon as possible," Christofias told
reporters Wednesday, cautioning this could not be achieved in a month
"when there is a deep chasm of differences." But he insisted: "This time
we must succeed. A new failure will be devastating for the future of our
people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots."

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