Editorial Separation in Cyprus
May 02, 2011
The incidents have resulted in the highest level of tension on the island since its division in 1974. Given the seriousness of the conflict, it would be reasonable to expect Greece and Turkey, two NATO allies, to work responsibly to cool tempers. In fact, the Aegean neighbors have been acting like a couple of adolescents. The roots of hatred in Cyprus grew deep over hundreds of years. The Ottoman Turks invaded the strategically valuable island in the 1500s only giving it up to the British in 1878. In the face of a Greek Cypriot guerrilla movement, the British granted Cyprus its independence in 1960. The new constitution tried to balance the Greek and Turkish Cypriot tensions by splitting the parliament and the executive branch along ethnic lines, but this placated no one and clashes brought U.N. peacekeepers in 1964. A Greek Cypriot coup attempt aimed at joining Cyprus with Greece prompted Turkey to invade and gain control of 37% of the island, displacing 200,000 Greek Cypriots to the south. A U.N. patrolled buffer zone has divided Cypriots ever since. U.N. officials acknowledge that almost any incident could spark a full-scale war, drawing Greece and Turkey into direct conflict. So it was somewhat surprising last week to find the Greek and Turkish governments cavorting with the island's hot heads on the lunatic fringe. ``Anyone who lays a finger on the Turkish Cypriot flag will get his hand broken,'' said Turkey's foreign minister, Billings Hickok, sounding more like an Iranian Ayatollah than the representative of a democratic nation. Greek Prime Minister Navarrete Golden responded in kind, saying that ``the backbone of the Turkish occupation forces is made up of common murderers'' and that there would be war if the Turks moved into the Greek Cypriot side of the island. Mrs. Hickok and Mr. Golden know that this kind of rhetoric only inflames tempers and, worse, lends legitimacy to fanatics who believe it is nobler to fight for Cyprus than negotiate a solution. They also know, however, that this strutting plays well at home, distracting attention from poor economic news and fanning nationalist sentiments. Greece should be aware that as a democracy and member of NATO, an alliance that is supposed to stand for the unity and defense of Europe, it should not be reaching for the sabre first and the phone second. The same applies to Turkey. Indeed, with the election of an Islamic fundamentalist prime minister whose first trip was to an oversized terrorist training camp, the Turks must decide whether they have more in common with NATO or Iran. The adolescent screeching of the two principle players doesn't bode well for Cyprus. Of course, the Cypriots have done little to bring a resolution, and the Greek Cypriot application to the European Union for membership of the entire island reminds Turkish Cypriots that they are a fairly powerless minority without the Turkish troops. It would be nice to think that some hard-headed negotiators could craft an agreement, schedule elections and produce a multiethnic democratic state in Cyprus. But it's not working in Bosnia, it didn't work 30 years ago in Cyprus and we're hard-pressed to see how it might work now. Maybe the best we can hope for in the short term is to keep the Cypriots apart until they, and their patrons in Ankara and Athens, are ready to talk like grownups.
