Finnish proposals and the Turkish Cypriots

By Ali Erel

President,

Cyprus-EU Association

 

The progress report on Turkey’s negotiations with the EU will be public beginning of November. Despite all the warnings from the EU institutions, Turkey has not yet fulfilled her obligations under the Customs Union Agreement. To avoid a possible “early train crash” with Turkey, Finland, current holder of the Presidency of the EU, has proposed a package to the parties. 

On the eve of the approaching presidential and general elections in Turkey, Erdogan’s government is uneasy on the Cyprus and ports issue. There are other difficulties between Turkey and the EU, and both the Turkish Government and the EU institutions have raised possible suspension of the negotiations if things continue as they are. 

Finland, being aware of the consequences if Turkey’s obligations were to be linked in the same document together with the Turkish Cypriots’ relations with the EU, did not submit her proposals in a written format. The EU fully appreciates the inconveniences such a connection would create in the future. Although “the peace process for the Cyprus problem should be carried under the UN umbrella” is spelled out, set dates being within the EU process are compelling the EU to be a party to the Cyprus problem.

Turkey’s progress at the accession negotiations can be achieved at a pace that her internal public opinion allows her and Turkey knows that this process will not be short. On the other hand, the EU is acting with full acknowledgment that, if it is to make any opening to Turkish Cypriots, it must first compromise with and get the approval of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Squeezed in between the priorities of the EU and the Republic of Cyprus on the one side and Turkey’s priorities on the other, Turkish Cypriots seem to have accepted their passiveness regarding their future.  

The TRNC is defined by both the European Court of Human Rights and the EU as the “local subordinate administration of Turkey”.  Insistence of Turkey and the TRNC administration that any openings for Turkish Cypriots by the EU and UN should be based on the legal framework of the TRNC, is endangering the existence of the Turkish Cypriots on the island. It is now well understood that the relationship of the Turkish Cypriots with the EU does not coincide with the Turkey-EU process.

Somehow, “Protocol 10” signed in the presence of the Turkish Prime Minister, is not   comprehended fully by the Turkish and the TRNC governments. Due to this protocol, which is part of the Act of Accession, which is a primary law of the EU, the whole of Cyprus is part of the EU and the Turkish Cypriots are citizens of the EU. However  “at those areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which the Government of the Republic of Cyprus does not exercise effective control”, the application of the acquis is temporarily suspended. Turkish and TRNC authorities do not appreciate that the relations of the Turkish Cypriots with the EU is based on this Protocol. As long as the Protocol 10 stands as it is, the EU institutions are not equipped to propose any opening for the Turkish Cypriots, contrary to this protocol.  

The Council decision of April 26, 2004, which foresaw “the lifting of the economic isolation on the Turkish Cypriot community, to encourage the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community with particular emphasis on the economic integration of the island and on improving contacts between the two communities and with the EU and to help to reunify the island” was also based on Protocol 10. Interestingly, Turkey and TRNC persistently misjudge this situation. If isolations are to be lifted this shall only be done to encourage economic integration of the island and will not be on the TRNC legal framework.

It should not be overlooked that the Green Line, Financial Aid and Direct Trade regulations were also based on Protocol 10. In this context; unfortunately the EU institutions have registered the fact that the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce and the TRNC administration are obstructing the proper functioning of the Green Line regulation. This observation will create difficulties for the EU to cooperate with the Turkish Cypriot institutions in future. 

A proposal two years ago, by then the executive board of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce that “the economic integration can only be achieved by the free movement of the goods overall the island” was rejected by the TRNC government and those who proposed it were declared to be “submissive”. But now, two years later, they are saying that “direct trade is of no use to us, we want free trade”. The cost of this delay is loss of two years to the community.

Even if the acquis is unilaterally applied in the northern part of the island, any package which does not foresee the inclusion of the Turkish Cypriots within the islandwide and the EU economic integration and the merger of the universities in north Cyprus with the Barcelona process, is futile for the Turkish Cypriots.

On the other hand, to offer Varosha for resettlement under the TRNC laws as a goodwill gesture, is not the correct move. Making assumptions that the TRNC laws will be applicable for those who will resettle and invest in Varosha, when faced with the difficulties and questions about investments, bank loans and building permissions, municipal services, rent, sale and many other similar issues, is a grave mistake. This proposition is once again an indication that the consequences of Protocol 10, ECHR rulings and UN Security Council resolutions have not been fully understood or are being rejected. 

The Turkish Cypriots are once again paying the price for the wrong political moves by the TRNC administration since the referendum. The EU institutions are now proposing direct trade, just to ease the pressure on Turkey, with the full knowledge that this is no good to us. Are we now going to be considered satisfied, when told that “here, the isolation is lifted”? Is this how we are to present it to the Turkish Cypriot community? This and similar policies will drag the Turkish Cypriot community into exhaustion.