Keeping Britain's word to Northern Cyprus

The Eastern Mediterranean is important in relation to Iran, Iraq, Israel, the Gulf, the Caspian, and the Middle East generally. British trading interests, whilst small in Cyprus itself, require stability in the region. Violations of human rights and breakdown of respect and understanding between peoples in the region threaten our foreign policy interests. Britain has a military base in Cyprus and the island is a sensitive issue in relations between Britain, Turkey and the European Union.

Cyprus was a Turkish island until leased by Britain in 1878 and annexed unilaterally by Britain in 1914. Britain allowed large numbers of Greeks to settle in the island and granted independence in 1960 on the basis of a power-sharing constitution agreed between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. However, as soon as the British had left, the Greek Cypriots attempted to take the whole island for themselves and to expel the Turkish Cypriots.

On December 28, 1963 the Daily Express reported: ‘We went tonight into the sealed-off Turkish Cypriot Quarter of Nicosia in which 200 to 300 people had been slaughtered in the last five days. We were the first Western reporters there and we have seen sights too frightful to be described in print. Horror so extreme that the people seemed stunned beyond tears.’ Many Turkish Cypriots escaped to Turkey, and the remainder withdrew into defended enclaves and could no longer participate in the government of Cyprus.

Instead of taking action against the Greek Cypriots, the British, the Americans and the UN treated them as ‘the Government of Cyprus,’ and still do to this day. Some of the people responsible are still in senior positions in Cyprus but have never been tried for their crimes. The UN put an observer force into Cyprus but they were brushed aside by the Greek Cypriots in 1974 when they tried again to impose a final solution on the Turkish Cypriots. Sir Alec Douglas Home said in his memoirs: ‘If the Greek Cypriot leadership could not treat the Turkish Cypriots as human beings they were inviting the invasion and partition of the island.’

The leader of the 1974 coup, Nicos Sampson, told Eleftherotipia newspaper that ‘had Turkey not intervened I would not only have proclaimed ENOSIS (the proposed union of Greece and Cyprus) — I would have annihilated the Turkish Cypriots’. The UK and the US did nothing to save the Turkish Cypriots, but fortunately for them Turkey did intervene, and established a safe haven in the north where the Turkish Cypriots now live.

Turkey’s action has had a high diplomatic cost to itself, and the UK should make it clear that Turkey should not be penalised in its relations with the EU, or at the UN, for the action it had to take in 1974. The Turkish Cypriots proclaimed their own state in 1983 but the British and Americans persuaded the world not to recognise it.

The driving force behind Greek Cypriot actions was, and still is, the Greek Orthodox Church, which dreams of Hellenising Cyprus and annexing it to Greece. They will encourage the appearance of negotiations, but will never accept a settlement which could be acceptable to the Turkish Cypriots. Their influence was a major factor in the rejection by the Greek Cypriots of the Annan Plan in 2004.

The church is immensely rich and politically powerful in southern Cyprus, but there is no comparable force in the north. Although most Turkish Cypriots are Muslims, they rarely attend the mosque and their religious leaders have no political power. Cyprus is a case of Christian fundamentalism vs moderate Islam. Similarly, the church and Greek Cypriot businessmen spend huge sums to influence politicians, especially in Britain and the US, but the Turkish Cypriots cannot match those resources.

For the past 44 years the Turkish Cypriots have been living under international isolation which they have never deserved.

David Miliband, at the Labour Conference said he had been told that ‘millions of Muslims around the world think we’re seeking not to empower them but to dominate them.’ He also said ‘Europe can’t be a closed Christian club.’ Britain should be supporting the moderate Muslims in Cyprus, but we are not. The Greek Cypriot government, with British support, gained entrance to the EU in 2004, claiming to represent the whole of Cyprus, and the Turkish Cypriots were left outside.

Today, the Greek Cypriot ‘Government of Cyprus’ controls all the Cyprus embassies and prevents the Turkish Cypriots trading directly with the world. They prevent direct flights to airports in the north of Cyprus. They exclude the Turkish Cypriot voice from the councils of the world, including the UK political party conferences. They will not allow Turkish Cypriot teams to participate in international sport. They try to prevent access by the Turkish Cypriots to international funding and expertise to protect the heritage and environment. They complain that churches in the north are in disrepair whilst bulldozing mosques and Muslim shrines in the south, and they are trying to prevent European recognition of Turkish Cypriot universities within the Bologna process.

In April 2004, the United Nations’ Annan plan for a Cyprus settlement was endorsed by the whole world as a fair and reasonable compromise. The Turkish Cypriots accepted it, despite the fact that it contained considerable risks for them, but the Greek Cypriots rejected it. They were entitled to reject it, but having done so, they cannot expect the world to assist them to keep the Turkish Cypriots in isolation. The Plan would have removed almost all the Greek and Turkish troops from the island and would have allowed many of the Greek Cypriots to return to their former homes in the north, with compensation for the rest.

On April 26, 2004, the EU Council said: ‘The Turkish Cypriots have expressed their clear desire for a future within the European Union. The Council is determined to put an end to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and to facilitate the reunification of Cyprus by encouraging the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community.’ They have not yet done so.

On May 18, 2004 Prime Minister Blair said: ‘It is important that we end the isolation of northern Cyprus… That means lifting the embargoes in respect to trade and in respect to air travel’. The UK Government has not yet done so and the Turkish Cypriots have had to take the question of direct flights to the English courts, which should decide within the next few months.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons reported on February 1, 2005 that ‘undertakings given to Turkish Cypriots by the international community must be honoured. We recommend that the [UK] Government do more to turn its words into action’.

It is now more than three years since the Turkish Cypriots accepted the Annan Plan, but they still suffer the isolation which they have had to endure for 44 years. Why? Because nobody wants to risk offending the Greek Cypriots — but it is time for this to change. The Greek Cypriots must no longer be allowed to keep the Turkish Cypriots in isolation. It would be wholly unreasonable to expect the Turkish Cypriots to wait for yet another round of UN-sponsored talks which are currently being talked about, and all international restrictions upon them must be removed now.

If Britain’s new prime minister believes in the moral values which he espouses, he should start acting with honesty and decency toward the Turkish Cypriots.

In Europe, Gordon Brown should press for the full inclusion of Turkish Cypriot universities in the Bologna process and for the right of Turkish Cypriot MPs to speak in the European Parliament whenever Cyprus is considered. At the UN he should call for all countries to trade normally with northern Cyprus. In Britain he should not allow the Cyprus High Commission to interfere in contractual relations between exhibition organisers in the UK and Turkish Cypriots who wish to organise or participate in exhibitions. He should also make it clear to the Greek Cypriots that he does not approve of their efforts to use the UK courts to settle property disputes which should have been settled through the Annan Plan or through the compensation commission which the Turkish Cypriots have established.

This would be the policy most likely to bring the parties in Cyprus to serious negotiations. The Turkish Cypriots still prefer settlement to permanent separation, but the Greek Cypriot leaders need to be convinced that the world will not tolerate restrictions on the Turkish Cypriots any longer.

Michael Stephen was a Conservative MP 1992-97. He is the author of The Cyprus Question (ISBN 0-9540840-0-5). He is a barrister and international lawyer and a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House).