{"id":142567,"date":"2021-02-22T12:45:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T09:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/turkey-looks-to-cyprus-to-consolidate-eastmed-gains\/"},"modified":"2021-02-22T12:45:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T09:45:03","slug":"turkey-looks-to-cyprus-to-consolidate-eastmed-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/turkey-looks-to-cyprus-to-consolidate-eastmed-gains\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey looks to Cyprus to consolidate EastMed gains"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Sean Mathews\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Even as Ankara and Athens reengage in exploratory talks over long-running maritime disputes, Turkey is pressing ahead in its campaign for a two-state solution on the island.<\/p>\n

Ankara is working with its allies in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus\u00a0to make a case for a two-state solution in the leadup to a UN-sponsored summit scheduled for early March on the divided Eastern Mediterranean island.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will enter into a deal as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and not as the Turkish Cypriot community,\u201d Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertugruloglu\u00a0told Al-Monitor in a telephone interview. \u201cThe road to a settlement passes through the recognition that there are two separate states on the island of Cyprus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-state solution has been heavily promoted since the\u00a0election\u00a0of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ally\u00a0Ersin Tatar\u00a0as president\u00a0of Northern Cyprus last year. The island is at the center of ongoing maritime disputes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea over\u00a0exclusive economic zones\u00a0and potential gas reserves.<\/p>\n

Greece and Turkey are two guarantor powers of the island along with the United Kingdom\u00a0under a constitution that granted Cyprus independence in 1960 from colonial rule by Britain.\u00a0Athens\u00a0has been on the\u00a0front lines\u00a0of\u00a0Turkey\u2019s\u00a0deteriorating\u00a0relations with the West\u00a0and the two NATO allies have engaged in heated sparring over\u00a0maritime disputes.<\/p>\n

Past settlement talks centered on two constituent states joined in a federation. This framework was the closest the island of 1.2 million people came to reunification in the form of the UN-backed\u00a0Annan plan\u00a0before the ascension of Cyprus into the EU. Turkish Cypriots voted overwhelmingly for the plan but 76% of Greek Cypriots rejected it.<\/p>\n

Seventeen years later, the Annan plan is still hotly debated with both sides invoking it to challenge the other\u2019s lack of good faith and designs to exploit their respective communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Annan plan was really a chance to end the issue and that was rejected by the Greek Cypriots. Now there is no trust towards the UN-led initiative,\u201d said Murat Aslan, a former Turkish military intelligence professional who has held various roles in the Defense Ministry and General Staff.<\/p>\n

Marios Evriviades, a professor of international relations and history at Neapolis University in Pafos, Cyprus, says a major reason the plan was rejected was that it didn\u2019t properly address the removal of Turkish troops from the island.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Athens\u00a0also rejects the idea of a new Turkish state.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0after years of failed talks and decades of living in de facto separation, the idea has more supporters than Erdogan and Tatar. Some even\u00a0believe\u00a0that Greek Cypriot President\u00a0Nicos Anastasiadis\u00a0himself favors two separate states.<\/p>\n

The fading memory of a united Cyprus and the urge to go separate ways after years of frustration with the UN process give\u00a0the two-state solution more traction. It is also what many people are familiar with from daily life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two-state solution was realized after 1974. There are two different administrations. The parameter to assess its sufficiency is if there has been any conflict on the island since then, which there has not been,\u201d Aslan stated.<\/p>\n

Those in the north bristle at this suggestion and believe that two state\u00a0is the only way forward after\u00a0years of international isolation. \u201cIf you want a settlement you must accept the realities of the island. There is no legitimate Republic of Cyprus,\u201d Ertugruloglu told Al-Monitor.<\/p>\n

Against\u00a0this backdrop, analysts say it\u2019s difficult to imagine progress being made during next month\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n

Western powers appear less willing to confront Turkey in Cyprus. Erdogan didn\u2019t invent the Cyprus issue and Turkish troops have been stationed on the island since 1974. As opposed to an imperial foray in the deserts of Libya, Ankara\u2019s concern for Cyprus is tied to the roughly 300,000\u00a0Turkish people\u00a0living in the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0have never shied away from expressing that the Cyprus question is a national matter for the Turkish nation. The future for Turkish Cypriots is a road we will embark upon with our motherland Turkey,\u201d Ertugruloglu told Al-Monitor.<\/p>\n

If leaders in Brussels and Washington are looking for an area to compromise with Ankara it may be in Cyprus. Many still regret that the Annan plan was voted down and consider it a lost opportunity to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

Whether there is a two-state solution or not, Turkey may have the wind at its back in Cyprus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SOURCE:\u00a0 AL-MONITOR<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sean Mathews\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Even as Ankara and Athens reengage in exploratory talks over long-running [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyprus-in-world-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pio.mfa.gov.ct.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}