Cypriots split over island’s future

Source: Al Jazeera English
Publication Date: September 24, 2008

Cyprus’ rival leaders have begun their first solid talks on reunification and power-sharing in what is seen as the best chance in years of resolving differences on the divided island.

Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera’s Europe correspondent, spoke to two Cypriots from either side of the island, one of whom believes that the two communities are slowly coming together, the other who fears they are drifting apart.

“Not a chance,” the café owner was emphatic, “not one chance”, he said, jabbing his finger at me to make the point, “this peace process will go nowhere”.

Phillips’ European diary
Part 1: A Balkan view

It was just one opinion, from the Greek side of the divided island of Cyprus, but it was depressing to hear, nonetheless.

After all, we had come to Cyprus to cover the start of formal reunification talks between the Greek and Turkish communities.

And, so we had been told, this is Cyprus’s best, maybe last, chance of bringing the two sides together.

In truth, my café owner, in the heart of the capital Nicosia, is not alone in his bleak assessment.

Bitter truths

One senior Western diplomat in the region told me, only half in jest, that “when it comes to the Cyprus problem, there are two kinds of people; pessimists, and those who haven’t been here long enough to be pessimists”.

It’s easy to list the reasons why this peace initiative might fail, like all the others before it in the 34 years since Turkish troops landed on Cyprus in response to a coup by officers of the Cypriot National Guard seeking unity with Greece.

There is the difficulty of restoring property and/or paying compensation to the many thousands who were displaced in the fighting in 1974.

Then there is the challenge of finding a workable power-sharing arrangement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and of securing consensus on the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers, and so on.

The optimists, and there are a few, say that things might be different this time.

That’s because the respective leaders on Cyprus, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, are serious about following these talks through to their conclusion. The friendship between the men goes back many years.

But that may not be enough.

If the Cyprus problem is to be solved, both leaders are going to have to tell their people some awkward facts.

For example, many of the displaced will not get their homes or land back, and the families of those listed as “missing” will have to come to terms with the fact that their loved ones are dead.

Cypriots have listened to nationalist rhetoric for decades, and now must accept some very bitter truths.

Awkward position

On the Turkish side of the island, I heard grumbling that Talat may not have the charisma or dynamism to convince his people to embrace reunification, especially after the disappointment of 2004, when Turkish Cypriots accepted a UN plan, but Greek Cypriots rejected it.

Talat is in an awkward position.

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