[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2294-H2295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CYPRUS PEACE SETTLEMENT

  (Mr. BEREUTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include therein 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. BEREUTER. Madam Speaker, last November U.N. Secretary General 
Kofi Annan proposed a comprehensive framework for a just and lasting 
settlement of the Cyprus problem. He then asked the Greek and Turkish 
Cypriot leaders to accept the plan by February 28. Because of the 
forthcoming EU membership for at least the Greek portion of Cyprus and 
other factors of leverage, this was the best opportunity in decades for 
a solution to the Cyprus problem.
  When neither side could resolve their problems by the end of 
February, the Secretary General asked the two leaders to meet in The 
Hague on March 10 to sign an agreement to put the framework to 
simultaneous referenda on the island.
  Two weeks ago, we learned with great disappointment that the 
Secretary General was told by Turkish Cypriot leader Denktash that he 
could not accept the settlement plan and would not agree to the 
referenda despite the fact that informal polling indicated that the 
majority of the Turkish Cypriots were prepared to support the plan.
  Madam Speaker, this Member urges the Greek and Turkish Cypriots to 
quickly resume negotiations to resolve this problem, to seize this rare 
opportunity for a peaceful settlement and urge the United Nations and 
the Bush administration to redouble their efforts to get the talks 
going once again, and to seek a Cyprus solution which at long last 
seems to be within our grasp.
  Madam Speaker, it was highly regrettable, to this Member, that Mr. 
Denktash refused to let the Turkish Cypriot people have the opportunity 
to determine their own future on an agreement which would have reunited 
the island and which would have served the best interests of the 
Turkish Cypriot community. This Member was also disappointed with the 
government of Turkey for their apparent unwillingness to exert 
influence on Mr. Denktash to agree to the plan at such a critical time.
  Attached is a recent editorial from The Economist on this subject.

                  [From the Economist, Mar. 13, 2003]

                     Settling Cyprus--What a Waste


  the collapse of talks to reunite the island marks a stupidly missed 
                              opportunity

       Over the years it has been hard to apportion blame for the 
     failure of the divided island's Greek and Turkish leaders to 
     strike a deal to give their people security and prosperity in 
     a loosely federal but reunited Cyprus. Recently, under the 
     blandishments of

[[Page H2295]]

     the United Nations and the European Union, they had come 
     within finger-touching distance of a settlement. All the 
     sadder, then, that this week the Turkish-Cypriots' truculent 
     leader, Rauf Denktash, rejected the UN's sensible proposals 
     for a deal. The government in mainland Turkey must also share 
     blame by failing to bludgeon Mr. Denktash into accepting the 
     plan. A further gloomy outcome is that, while the island's 
     Greek-run part will almost certainly join the EU on its own 
     next year and the Turkish part will fester in isolation and 
     poverty, mainland Turkey's own hopes of starting negotiations 
     to join the Union have been dented too.
       Both of the island's communities had a lot to gain. The 
     Turks would have given back control of around 8% of the 
     island's territory to the Greeks--a substantial chunk of the 
     land taken in 1974 when the Turkish army intervened after a 
     short-lived Greek-Cypriot coup on the island. The Turks, 18% 
     of the population before the invasion, have since held 37% of 
     the land. The Greek-Cypriots' new president, Tassos 
     Papadopoulos, at first complained that the latest UN 
     compromise did not adequately address his people's 
     grievances. But he wisely accepted it. This time it is 
     overwhelmingly Mr. Denktash's fault that a settlement has 
     been blocked.
       Indeed, the Turks had even more to gain than the Greeks. 
     They would have kept a vast amount of autonomy in their still 
     disproportionately large zone. They would have enjoyed an 
     influx of EU cash had the whole island been joining the Union 
     next year, not to mention the rapid lifting of sanctions long 
     imposed by the EU against their breakaway statelet.
       The Turkish government may have been too preoccupied by the 
     political wrangling and tortuous diplomacy over Iraq (see 
     article). Many of Turkey's still-too-influential generals see 
     the Turkish-run bit of Cyprus as a strategic asset, while 
     some Turkish politicians regard the island as a bargaining 
     chip in Turkey's quest to join the EU. They are wrong. 
     Turkey's failure to persuade Mr. Denktash to say yes to 
     compromise will make it much harder for the EU to smile on 
     its application, due for consideration at the end of next 
     year, to start negotiations to join. Many governments are 
     already queasy about the idea of Turkey as a fellow Euro-club 
     member.


                               what next?

       The UN's secretary-general, Kofi Annan, had suggested a 
     ruse to force Mr. Denktash's hand and to strengthen that of 
     the Greek-Cypriots' leader by holding a referendum on the 
     proposals next month--on both sides of the island. Both 
     communities would probably have said yes. But Mr. Denktash 
     wrecked that idea too. If stalemate prevails, as seems 
     likely, Mr. Annan says he will abandon all further efforts to 
     settle Cyprus during his time as UN boss. It would then be up 
     to the EU to reopen proceedings. By the end of this year the 
     Turkish-Cypriots are due for a general election. Mr. 
     Denktash's opponents on his own side of the island, who 
     approved of Mr. Annan's plan, may well take power in 
     parliament but the presidential term has a few years yet to 
     run. One day, perhaps mercifully soon, the ailing Mr. 
     Denktash will go. Then, maybe, a fair deal can at last be 
     done. But a golden chance has been stupidly wasted.

                          ____________________