Another Cyprus, And Turkey’s Strategy

Following last weekend’s referendums on Cyprus, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized the success of his government and its strategy. Actually a new policy is now in the works. As the National Security Council (NSC) stated this week, we’ve entered an era in which we should act ‘together and unified.’ A period of difficult diplomatic and strategic tactics, ones taking advantage of the Greek Cypriot ‘no’ vote, has begun. The picture drawn by the Higher Strategy Center think tank is as follows:

1. The Greek Cypriots have aimed at dominating the island and even expelling its Turkish Cypriots. In the past, they did this through massacres, as in 1963-64. Now they’re trying new ways. However, they have no guarantee of success.

2. Generally weakening or removing Turkey’s influence, especially the Turkish army’s presence and legal basis to ‘exercise its ability’ on Cyprus, is the strategy of Greek Cyprus, Greece and certain EU countries.

3. Cyprus lacks key importance militarily as our edge in military superiority is greater than before. However, the possibility of regional crises for the island still holds. There is a narrow confluence between Turkey’s need and the strategic situation of the island, which is used by Britain as its ‘headquarters for easing passage to the Far East.’ Unfortunately this can’t be told to the EU. Maybe the NATO summit will help us on this.

Two very important results come from the above points. Firstly, the difficult and comprehensive diplomatic game is too important to be played only by the government, so everybody should work together and be open to reason and knowledge. Secondly, under the obligation for a solution to the Cyprus issue, our policy of pressuring the EU to get an accession talks date this December should be moderated.”