Solution “impossible” if Turkish Cypriots “thinned out”
Former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Gustave Feissel echoed the late Archbishop Makarios last Wednesday by urging Cypriots to “seek what is achievable, rather than what is desirable” in a solution to the Cyprus problem.
He warned that the demographics of the north is fast working against the interests of Greek Cypriots and asking leaders to stop vilifying each other and start working together on a solution without outside interference.
Feissel was speaking at a conference organised by the Research and Development Center-Intercollege entitled “Revisiting the Cyprus problem”.
Noting that what has happened “cannot be wished away” and has had a profound impact on both communities, he said “what we should seek is something that is achievable rather than desirable.”
“Obviously each side has their own solution if they could decide what that solution could be but that is not one that it is possible. Therefore it is important for each side to make that distinction.”
“Lip service” paid to bizonal bicommunal
Feissel, who was careful to criticise both sides for past and present failures, warned Turkish Cypriots that any insistence on a confederational model that is not acceptable to Greek Cypriots is “certainly not an achievable objective today” and that the political arrangements could be more reflective of the demographics on the island.
However, he also said that on the Greek Cypriot side, “while lip service has been paid frequently to bizonal bicommunal federation in fact this is something which has not sat well with them and in fact is something which most people probably have never liked.”
He said that Greek Cypriots while saying they are in favour of bicommunal and bizonal federation “at the same time they propose measures which are mutually exclusive to a large extent from a bizonal bicommunal federation, including with the question of how to deal with the issue of refugees and things of that sort.”
“The specifics of what this implies in terms of an overall settlement cannot be contradictory to the idea,” he added.
Solution “impossible” if no TCs left
However, he warned several times that time is moving against both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
“The biggest danger that we face today the gradual withering away of the Turkish Cypriot community.”
Estimates of the number of Turkish settlers vary depending on whether one includes soldiers, casual workers and those who came to Cyprus after marrying a Cypriot.
However, Turkish Cypriots have told the Financial Mirror that they feel a shrinking minority and that their identity is under threat, with few people understanding the distinctive Turkish Cypriot dialect any more, for example.
“It is in the interests of both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots that there is a viable, healthy dynamic Turkish Cypriot community. … If gradually they get thinned out then a settlement by default will become impossible,” said Feissel.
Citing what he has been told in private, Feissel also warned that “while they might not always articulate that openly, both sides have become accustomed to living apart.”
Stop vilifying each other
Feissel added that it was in Greek Cypriot interests to do what they can to keep the Turkish Cypriot community vibrant.
He therefore called on the two sides to stop the daily slanging matches.
“It is vital that both sides stop vilifying each other and vilifying their leaders. This is not a very productive approach and these are the people with whom you want to make a deal. … you can’t do a deal with the devil.”
“Stop all this badmouthing,” he added.
No solution from outer space
In a remark that could point to why the UN has not felt that the time is right to kick-start negotiations again, the former UN diplomat said that the common view is that the solution to the Cyprus problem will come from outside.
“We are waiting for some plane to arrive from outer space,” he said.
“I would say that in 2005 the time has long come when the two sides should decide this is our place and we are going to try and work this thing out.
“And there is nothing that prevents even now the leaderships of the two communities to get together unconstrained by all the things that have happened before and to sit down and see how they could work something out by themselves without the interference or the bright ideas of outsiders, whether they are the mothers or international organisations.”
Fiona Mullen
