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Projects: Cyprus |
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On December 14, Turkish Cypriot voters in the northern part of Cyprus will elect new representatives to their local parliament. If the joint slate of opponents to President Denktash win, Cyprus could be re-united before May 2004, when the Greek Cypriot southern section of the Mediterranean island enters the European Union. The opposition in the north has pledged to sign on to the plan prepared by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his staff in February 2003, and accepted by Greek Cyprus, but not by Denktash or Turkey. Solving the separation of Cyprus will, says Europe, materially improve Turkey’s chances of being accepted as a member of the European Union. The United States and Britain are also pressing Turkey (and Denktash) to ratify Annan’s elaborate resolution of the Cyprus problem. But Denktash asserts that the Annan Plan will be bad for Turkish Cypriots and for the strategic interests of Turkey. The election and its aftermath represent a last best chance for the island’s peoples. Since 1974, Cyprus has effectively been partitioned. Numerous UN and Western efforts to re-unify the island have foundered on the rocks of either Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot intransigence. Annan’s Plan, however, is accepted by most Cypriots, of both languages. WPF Report 37 Cyprus after Annan: Next Steps Toward a Solution examines the history and causes of the intracommunal conflict on Cyprus and the UN’s previous negotiating initiatives, summarizes and analyzes the key components of the Annan Plan, and suggests how and under what circumstances Cyprus can and should re-unite. The Report follows a meeting at the Kennedy School, Harvard University, with key diplomatic officials involved in the Cyprus problem from the UN, the U.S., Britain, and the European Union, plus prominent Cypriots from both sides and Turkish and Greek officials. It also draws on the Program’s six year engagement with the Cyprus problem as the leader of a negotiating effort. The first phase of the Program's attention to Cyprus, and a meeting in 1998 in New Hampshire, culminated in the report Cyprus 2000: Divided or Federal by Robert I. Rotberg and Ericka Albaugh. Beginning in May 1999 and continuing through 2001, the WPF held a series of six meetings with Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. |
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