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Two-plus-Three-Negotiations at Crans Montana fail on
6th July 2017
by Dr. Christian Heinze
A Subpage to the Page:
The Cyprus Conflict * 2017 07 07
An Article by Lefteris Adilinis published on July 5th, 2017, in the online extension
“incyprus” of “THE CYPRUS WEEKLY”, reports the Secretary General of the United
Nations Guterres having presented a framework for a Cyprus solution, during
the recent 2+3-Negotiations at Crans Montana (confirmed on 4th July), suggesting: “We
need to end the right of intervention and the Treaty of Guarantee. They need to be
replaced by a new system of assurances so that all Cypriots feel secure.” He added that “a
new implementation mechanism will be created that will also involve elements
outside Cyprus. Guarantors cannot monitor the implementation of their own obligations.”
This statement provides a sufficient explanation why all Cyprus negotiations conducted under
the United Nations auspices were - and still are - bound to fail: The Turkish
Cypriots cannot reasonably be expected to feel secure unless their position in Cyprus is
guaranteed by a Turkish right of military intervention, for two reasons: One reason
is constituted by the continued, partially successful attempts on the part of the Greek
conflicting party, undertaken since the beginning of the actual conflict in 1955 until today
whenever an
opportunity seemed to arise, to deprive the Turkish Cypriots of their right of self
determination and of particular rights conferred on them with Greek consent by the treaties
and constitution of 1960 and to harm their even vital interests with all available means
including the force of arms. Until this day and even in the recent negotiations the Greek
conflicting party has never ceased to insist, contrary to these rights, on sovereignty over
the whole island and the Turkish "minority".
The Greek conflicting party succeded particularly in subjecting the Turkish Cypriot
community for more than 50 years to an international embargo preventing returns from
international tourism and trade on which all Cyprus depends. Consequentially, the
unification policy of the Greek party is aimed at reserving a position that would enable
their superior number and organization to attempt once more, on the next best occasion,
submission of the Turkish community to their unlimited will, while history and
the permanent behaviour of the Greek party suggests that no sort of rights of
Turkish Cypriots would protect them. The other reason consists in the Turkish military
intervention of 1974 having offered the only effective protection of the Turkish
Cypriots against another attempt of that year at their submission, this time conducted
with the help of mainland Greek military forces (the Turkish intervention incidentally
preventing bloodshed in the island ever since).
As concerns the vision of “new assurances”, their only conceivable form is
indicated by international peace forces, while such forces have failed to prevent suppression
in Cyprus in 1964 or violence in the Balcans (following the breakdown of Yugoslavia) or in
the Congo. This vision cannot be considered a serious political argument for the additional
reason that during more than fifty years of its involvement in the conflict the United
Nations have not even embarked on the invention of a substantial device that would promise
effecitve security. By contrast, military intervention has often proved effective, and
particularly so in the case of Cyprus. And little logic adorns the application of the idea
that Guarantors cannot monitor their own obligations to the case of Cyprus, because here the
objective of Guarantors is obviously the monitoring
of obligations of the other conflicting parties.
The predictable (and predicted - vide cy.pro-re-publica
) failure of the recent Crans Montana Conference could be compensated if it opened the
eyes of all concerned to the aspect that an agreed unification of Cyprus cannot be
hoped for as long as one of the parties expected to federate is denied legitimate existence
as a community entitled for self determination.