Straw: “Only a partitioned island will bring the dispute between Turkish and Greek Cypriots to an end”

A negotiated solution to the Cyprus problem through the creation of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation is impossible due to Greek Cypriot intransigence, according to Britain’s former foreign minister, Jack Straw, who believes the only viable alternative is a two-state solution.

According to an article by Straw in mainstream newspaper, The Independent, the dispute between the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots in Cyprus can only be ended by partition.

Straw expressed that in one of its worst strategic decisions ever, the European Union (sadly, with UK acquiescence) had agreed that Cyprus should join the EU on 1 May 2004, whether agreement had been reached with the Turkish Cypriots or not.

Pointing out that last July’s international conference on Cyprus in Crans-Montana failed because of the stance of the Greek Cypriot side, Straw said that earlier this summer the 11th international effort to strike a deal between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots was rejected by the Greek-Cypriot government – as every previous one has been. “So”, he adds, whatever its terms, “will the next, and the next”.

“It is time to end the charade that a negotiated agreement to unite the island with a ‘bi-zonal, bi-communal’ government will even be possible,” Straw wrote.

“The solution is to partition the island and give international recognition to the Turkish Cypriot state in the north.”

Straw said: “The Greek junta itself fell as a result of the Cyprus coup. There was then a ceasefire. It can be argued, as many have done, that the Turks overreacted by the number of troops they have stationed on the island ever since. But it’s hard to argue that the Turkish government should simply have sat on their hands. Certainly the UK would not have done, if it had been a British minority under such a threat”.

Adding that Greek Cypriot side has hardly acquitted itself as a model member of the EU, Straw said that it faced an existential banking crisis in 2012-13. Last month The Guardian claimed that Greek Cypriot government has raised more than €4bn since 2013 by providing citizenship (with rights across the EU) to foreign nationals, including “billionaire Russian oligarchs and Ukrainian business elites”.

Straw said: “It’s time, in my view, for the international community to acknowledge this reality and recognise the partition of the island. That would be far more likely to improve relations between the two communities than continuing the useless merry-go-round of further negotiations for a settlement that never can be”.