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Cyprus SEARCH FOR A NEW POLITICAL FORMULA
Clearly, the debate over government and politics on the
island
of Cyprus is more fundamental than in many other
countries. The
lack of consensus between the two major communities over
how to
govern and administer the island shapes daily life in each
community and dominates the island's relations with the
outside
world. At issue is whether the island should have one
government or
two, whether the two communities in fact constitute two
distinct
political entities and "nations," and whether some form of
cooperation and power sharing between the two communities
is
possible.
After 1974, the debate over these issues resumed,
mainly in a
formal process under the auspices of the UN secretary
general.
Political leaders in each community asserted that there
was general
agreement on how to proceed with the settlement
negotiations, and
that both sides had minimum requirements that had to be
recognized.
These mainstream positions fell along a continuum from a
concept of
federalism, in which major powers and functions would be
retained
at the federal level and residual powers at the level of
the
province or state, to something more like confederalism,
with
emphasis placed on maximum authority in the constituent
states and
more symbolic power for the overarching apparatus.
The interests of the two communities diverged over this
range,
with Greek Cypriots seeking to maximize prospects for
functional
reunification of the island and internal mobility of
people and
goods, and Turkish Cypriots arguing that separation of the
communities and their authority best served their security
interests. As a consequence, the two sides did not share
the same
sense of urgency about settlement. Greek Cypriots believed
that
time was not on their side, and that continued division of
the
island favored the separation preferred by Turkish
Cypriots. Greek
Cypriots thus felt a greater sense of urgency than Turkish
Cypriots, who were more satisfied with the status quo.
At the same time, dissident voices, with little
political
significance, argued for options other than the federal
solution,
including returning to preindependence proposals such as
enosis,
possibly with certain rights provided to Turkey, or double
enosis,
in which the two parts of the divided island would become
states or
provinces of their respective motherlands.
As of 1990, the governments of the Greek Cypriots and
Turkish
Cypriots and the world community had embraced the idea
that
settlement of the Cyprus question was possible through
negotiations
aiming to reestablish a single government, bizonal with
respect to
territory and bicommunal with respect to constitutional
aspects.
This process continued to dominate national life and
political
debate in both communities.
Data as of January 1991
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