A PEACE BASED ON TWO

In order to reduce areas of conflicts in the future, any solution should also be based on a state comprised of two states. Conflicts worldwide have raised anxiety about what will happen in Cyprus. After living in peace for 30 years in two different halves, it would be risky to make the Turks and the Greeks live together in a single state. Therefore the Turkish side is right in insisting on minimizing Greek settlement to the northern part of the island and solving property issues collectively. The Turkish side wants a model with two parts and societies and the formation of a confederation state.

The approach of the UN plan, on the other hand, would create disputes over properties that changed hands. The Greek side is refusing the idea of ‘two states and two peoples’ and favors a nearly unitary joint state and ‘one society,’ and so insists on a method divorced from the island’s realities and threatens conflict. The island has two nations with different religions, and two states which work differently. Any solution should be based upon this reality. Ignoring this fact and creating a single state from two different states won’t solve the problem but rather make it more complicated and dangerous for the future. Therefore the Turkish approach is both realistic and stable.

It’s difficult to understand the insistence on a ‘solution’ requiring one state and one society, a solution endangering the peace based on two states even as we see so much bloodshed in Palestine, Iraq, Syria and Kosovo. It’s even more difficult to explain the duty to base a solution on an understanding of property that would encourage ownership disputes. This is not an approach benefiting a goodwill mission. Turkey shouldn’t forget that it was right in its 1974 intervention. And the Turkish Cypriots don’t owe anything to anyone, but in fact have right on their side.”