[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 16114-16115]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         INCREASED DIALOGUE BETWEEN GREEK AND TURKISH CYPRIOTS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. VIRGINIA FOXX

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 23, 2008

  Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, recognizing increased dialogue between Greek 
Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots, and Turkey's support for a peaceful 
resolution on Cyprus, it is encouraging to see positive steps being 
taken to reunify the island.
  A recent Washington Times editorial outlines the importance of 
building on progress being made and explains how the U.S. can 
contribute to this process.

                     Needing an Excuse for Success

               [From the Washington Times, July 22, 2008]

       The divided island of Cyprus confirms the axiom that 
     political leaders occasionally need excuses for success. The 
     United States should give newly elected Greek Cypriot 
     President Demetris Christofias an excuse to negotiate the 
     reunification of the island with Turkish Cypriot President 
     Mehmet Ali Talat by breaking the international embargo on the 
     Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) through direct 
     transportation, trade, telecommunications and sporting links.
       Cyprus fractured between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot 
     de facto sovereignties in 1963 following the demise of the 
     1960 constitution. Since then, Greek Cypriot leaders have 
     lacked any political incentive to compromise from a position 
     of domination because the Greek Cypriot south has enjoyed 
     exclusive international recognition while Turkish Cypriots 
     have suffered from political isolation and economic 
     strangulation. The Greek Cypriot south is represented at the 
     United Nations. It enjoys diplomatic relations with every 
     nation but the Republic of Turkey. It represents the entire 
     island at international sporting or cultural events. Greek 
     Cypriot intransigence has carried no penalty. Indeed, 
     stubbornness has been rewarded by the international community 
     through the continuing global embargo of the Turkish Cypriots 
     but for Turkey. Turkish Cypriot youth, straining in a economy 
     under perpetual duress, have had to flee the island in search 
     of opportunity. Time has allowed the embargo to weaken 
     Turkish Cypriot resistance to the Greek Cypriot ambition to 
     reduce them to vassalage. In this favorable international 
     context for the Greek

[[Page 16115]]

     Cypriot south, any Greek Cypriot leader who would have 
     yielded anything to Turkish Cypriots would have been 
     committing political suicide.
       At its birth from British colonial rule in 1960, Cyprus 
     sported a single sovereignty with single citizenship under a 
     finely balanced constitution. To opine on responsibility for 
     the destruction of the constitutional order in 1963 and the 
     necessity for Turkish troops to rescue Turkish Cypriots from 
     violence in 1974 would imperil ongoing reunification talks. 
     It is sufficient to note that through Greek and Greek Cypriot 
     lobbying and a western prejudice favoring Christians over 
     Muslims, the international community has severed virtually 
     all government and private connections to Turkish Cypriots 
     for nearly 45 years. That isolation was not required by 
     national or international laws. It was the result of cynical 
     political or economic calculations of governments and private 
     enterprise. Intermittent negotiations over reunification with 
     separate constituent states predictably stagnated for three 
     decades. Greek Cypriots generally demanded supremacy, while 
     Turkish Cypriots generally demanded equality.
       Then came the 2004 ``Annan Plan.'' United Nations 
     Secretary-General Kofi Annan fashioned a Nobel Prize-like 
     breakthrough to reunify Cyprus through a bold scheme of 
     federalism that accommodated both Greek Cypriot and Turkish 
     Cypriot aspirations while reciprocally quelling their fears. 
     Dual referendums on the ``Annan Plan'' were held in April 
     that year. Turkish Cypriots voted overwhelmingly in favor. 
     The United States and the European Union had lured them into 
     affirmative votes by promising to end the strict embargo on 
     the TRNC if the unexpected happened and Greek Cypriots 
     balked. They did, but the embargo has remained. Neither the 
     United States nor the EU has honored their respective 
     promises to open direct links to the TRNC. Their 
     international credibility has plunged and diminished their 
     ability to facilitate reconciliation elsewhere through a 
     combination of promised carrots and sticks. To add insult to 
     injury to the Turkish Cypriots, who had voted in favor of 
     peace and unity, the European Union proceeded to admit solely 
     the Greek Cypriot south as a new member, theoretically 
     representing all of Cyprus on the heels of its shipwreck of 
     reunification.
       The issue remained dormant for four years until the 2008 
     election of Greek Cypriot President Christofias on a platform 
     that included a renewal of negotiations with President Talat. 
     Face-to-face talks began early in the year. After a meeting 
     on May 23, the two leaders committed themselves to achieving 
     ``a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, 
     as defined by relevant [United Nations] Security Council 
     resolutions.'' The envisioned partnership dispensation would 
     comprise a federal government with a single international 
     personality along with a Turkish Cypriot constituent state 
     and a Greek Cypriot constituent state bearing equal status.
       President Christofias and President Talat met again on July 
     1, when they agreed in principle on a single sovereignty and 
     single citizenship. A scheduled meeting on July 25 is 
     expected to conclude with an agreement to begin discussions 
     in September on a comprehensive final settlement. Working 
     groups and technical committees have already been addressing 
     core political questions and day-to-day issues such as 
     education, road safety, health and the environment.
       Despite contrary expectations from world leaders, Greek 
     Cypriots nixed the ``Annan Plan'' because they perceived that 
     the international embargo of the TRNC put time on their side. 
     The United States can reverse that perception by immediately 
     initiating transportation, telecommunications, trade and 
     sporting ties with the TRNC conditioned on a certification by 
     the secretary of state that Turkish Cypriots are negotiating 
     in good faith for reunification on just and equitable terms. 
     That opening is exactly what President Christofias needs to 
     sell an equal partnership single Cypriot state to his 
     compatriots.

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