Cyprus Peace Plan Close to Clearing First Hurdle

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Cyprus Peace Plan Close to Clearing First Hurdle

A U.N. plan to reunify Cyprus was on the way to clearing its first hurdle Wednesday as all sides in the 30-year-old dispute signaled there was enough in the blueprint to go into negotiations.

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A U.N. plan to reunify Cyprus was on the way to clearing its first hurdle Wednesday as all sides in the 30-year-old dispute signaled there was enough in the blueprint to go into negotiations.

While the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, as well as their Greek and Turkish backers, do not have to formally accept the plan as a basis for negotiations until next Monday, there was a growing mood of optimism that talks would start.

It is not just the fate of Cypriots that hangs on the outcome.

The path of European Union enlargement and Turkey's hopes of joining the EU would be greatly smoothed if one of the world's most complex diplomatic puzzles, as intractable so far as the Kashmir and Northern Ireland questions, was finally solved.

Cyprus, with a population of about 750,000, is split between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The latter make up about 20 percent of the population and control about one-third of the island, its northern part.

Turkey is the only country that recognizes the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It has kept some 30,000 troops on the island since it invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens.

Cyprus -- the Greek Cypriot part -- is among 10 countries hoping to join the EU in the next expansion. Turkey has threatened to annex the north of the island if the EU admits a divided Cyprus at a Copenhagen summit in mid-December, while Greece has threatened to veto EU expansion if Cyprus is not included.

While there is understandable nervousness on both sides of the Mediterranean island about what they might have to give up in a deal, the clear message from Ankara and Athens was that the time had come to give peace a chance.

"This plan is the basis and start for the negotiations to follow," Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis said.

In Turkey, the leader of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, winner of the country's recent general election, was even more forthcoming. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a reunited Cyprus would ease ties with Athens as well as improve Turkey's chances of getting into the EU.

Terms of U. N. Plan

Under the terms of the plan, the Republic of Cyprus would be replaced with two "component states," one Turkish and the other Greek with their own constitutions, and a "common state" with a presidential council drawn from a two-chamber legislature.

There would be a six-member executive presidential council made up of four Greeks and two Turks, with offices of the president and vice president rotating every 10 months.

If a deal was agreed under the present U.N. proposals, there would be the biggest population movements in Europe since the Balkans conflicts of the 1990s.

The plan proposes cutting Turkish Cypriot territory from the 36 percent they hold today to 28.5 percent, with the return of 85,000 Greek Cypriot refugees to the reclaimed territory under Greek Cypriot administration and displacement of 42,000 Turkish Cypriots.

Source: Agencies

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