Greece, Cyprus, EU: Double enosis

For the struggle to carry on, first one needs to understand what the other side is trying to do. With the recent meeting of leaders of the opposition parties of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, Greek-Greek Cypriot attitude has become clear. Turks will be given some passports, some job opportunities, two seats in the Council of Europe and the opportunity to make Turkish one of the EU languages. Of course a generously-sponsored, intense psychological campaign will be launched for the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) to win December elections. Steps will be taken to remove Mr. Denktas as a negotiator and to make sure another negotiator will sign the Annan plan. In short, the front that has been defending Turkish rights in Cyprus since 1960 will collapse from within. This is called in "adaptation to change" both inside and outside.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s solution plan and Security Council’s Resolution 1475 aim at the removal of Mr. Denktas, like Yasser Arafat, as the only one to be blamed for the lack of a solution.

Guarantor countries’ signatures are also necessary for the solution. Those who do not see anything wrong with Talat’s meeting with Simitis may not hesitate to sign such a solution as well. But one should not forget that this solution might turn the division in Turkey and the island into a cliff and, perhaps, deal a fatal blow to the government after the fiasco over the motion requesting authorization for U.S. troops.

Just imagine that the Cyprus issue is resolved with this method. By the end of 2004, Greece happens to be insisting on its demand that its territorial waters be extended to 12 miles. Let’s assume that this is overcome as well. One or a few EU countries, acting on the pretext that Turkey has not yet met one membership criterion in the revised Accession Partnership Document object to giving a date for the beginning of accession talks. Cyprus will have gone and the "status quo" will have changed in an excellent (?) way.

To have an idea of what could happen to Turks in a Cyprus within the EU, it is enough to look at what is still happening to Turks in Western Thrace. The situation there has been discussed in a recent panel hosted by the Ankara Chamber of Trade (ATO), attended by the deceased Sadik Ahmet’s wife Isik S. Ahmet.

Despite some recent improvements in the Turkish minority’s life, many problems still remain. The members of the minority cannot call them Turks. Those who do so are put into jail. Greece insists on the term "Muslim." The minority cannot elect independent deputies. Passing a three-percent national threshold, that is securing 250,000 votes, is compulsory for this. But the entire minority is made up only by 150,000 people. In Turkey, the patriarch takes office through elections despite the law, but the Turkish minority cannot elect its own mufti. Elected muftis using this title are put into jail. The number of the minority members would have been almost half a million now, if they had not been stripped of nationality. The well-known Article 19 used for this purpose has changed but the rights of some 60,000 people that have been harmed by it have not been restituted. A 20-30-kilometer strip along the border with Bulgaria, where Turks reside, are still closed to the outside world as a military zone, despite the fact that the Cold War was over long ago. Education is problematic. Foundations are problematic. Equality is nonexistent in economic life. Bank loans are not granted to Turks. Their lands are expropriated, etc. All these things are happening in Greece, an EU member for 22 years.

Following the signing ceremony in Athens, Simitis said Greece accomplished its "fourty-year (that is, since 1963) goal." That was enosis. For those who did not understand, he openly said it as well, in a "slip of the tongue". In this way, he admitted that the accession of Greek Cyprus into the EU was against Article 2 of the Guarantee Agreement. Now, by taking the north, he will accomplish a "double enosis." This scenario is based on the assumption that the Turkish side will do every sacrifice for EU membership. Did you understand now why we keep saying that Northern Cyprus should join the EU together with Turkey?