|
Cyprus 1979 Kyprianou-Denktas Communiqué
In early 1979, President Kyprianou was persuaded by his
political advisers to resume talks with Denktas, and
Javier Pérez
de Cuéllar, then undersecretary general of the UN, called
the two
to a meeting in Nicosia in June. The two intercommunal
negotiators,
Minister to the President George Ioannides for the Greek
Cypriots
and Üit Süleyman Onan for the Turkish Cypriots, pursued
talks
aiming at a communiqué stating the broad agenda for
further talks.
This process stalled temporarily when Greek Cypriots
sought to give
the Varosha issue priority above all other issues. On May
18 and
19, the two leaders held a second summit that led to the
successful
conclusion of a ten-point agreement that called for a
resumption of
talks on all territorial and constitutional issues; placed
priority
on reaching agreement on the resettlement of Varosha;
stated the
parties' commitment to abstain from actions that could
jeopardize
the talks; and, envisaged the demilitarization of Cyprus.
The
agreement also repeated past statements about guarantees
against
union with any other country, partition, or secession. The
ten
points were largely a tactical means to secure further
negotiations
and did not resolve any substantive issues. One more
meeting was
held in June 1979, but the talks were then suspended until
August
1980.
The UN-established common ground on which the talks
resumed was
a four-part agenda addressing, on a rotating basis, the
resettlement of Varosha under UN auspices, initial
practical
measures to promote good will, constitutional issues, and
territorial issues. The talks, conducted in Cyprus under
the
chairmanship of the UN secretary general's Special
Representative
on Cyprus, Ambassador Hugo Gobbi, continued without a
major
breakthrough and were temporarily suspended for the spring
1981
parliamentary elections on both sides of the island. In
August and
October 1981, the two sides made substantive
presentations, which
were welcomed as signs of commitment to compromise, but
which also
revealed the serious gap in the two sides' concepts of a
solution.
The Turkish Cypriot proposal, submitted in August 1981,
named
four fundamental principles: a bicommunaand bizonal
federal
republic shall be established, but the two federated
states will
not form a unitary state; the Turkish Cypriot community
will be
regarded as an equal cofounder with the Greek Cypriot
community and
all government institutions will be staffed on a
fifty-fifty ratio;
the federal or central government will not be so strong as
to
imperil the independence of its component states; and the
three
freedoms of movement property, and settlement, will be
restricted
as set out by the 1977 guidelines. The proposal identified
as
"federal matters" six functions, including foreign
affairs; foreign
financial affairs; tourism and information; posts and
telecommunications; federal health and veterinarian
services; and,
standards of weights and measures, patents, copyrights,
and
trademarks. The Turkish Cypriots also submitted two maps,
one
defining a proposed boundary line between the two
federated states
and one focused on Varosha in particular. The Turkish
Cypriot
proposal treated the federal concept narrowly, limiting
federal
authority.
The Greek Cypriots submitted their proposal on October
1, 1981.
It contrasted sharply with the Turkish Cypriot proposal,
with a
heavy emphasis on the unity of the island and the powers
of the
federal republic. The plan's six principles included the
indivisibility of the territory of the federal republic;
the
federal republic as sole subject of international law, to
the
exclusion of the provinces; and the use of the federal
legislative
and executive powers to ensure Cyprus's economic
reintegration. The
Turkish Cypriots considered this proposal merely an
elaboration of
a 1977 Greek Cypriot plan.
Despite the failure to make headway on the core
political
issues, this phase had one notable achievement: the
agreement on
terms of reference for a Committee on Missing Persons,
consisting
of representatives of the two communities and an
international
participant designated by the International Committee of
the Red
Cross. The committee's first meeting was held on July 14,
1981. The
committed met sporadically throughout the 1980s, and new
proposals
to invigorate its work were discussed in early 1990. The
work of
the committee was hampered by sensitivity about exchanges
of
dossiers and information. Sensitivity areas included
security
matters and religious questions, such as whether graves
should be
disturbed.
By late 1981, UN officials and other supporters of the
settlement process had concluded that the talks needed new
stimulus. Secretary General Waldheim issued an evaluation
of the
negotiations in November, in what he called a "determined
effort to
lend structure and substance" to the negotiating process.
The
evaluation identified major points of "coincidence and
equidistance" in the two sides' positions and proposed
that the
contemplated republic's executive authority be exercised
by a
federal council composed of six ministerial functions,
corresponding roughly to the narrow Turkish Cypriot
concept.
Waldheim also suggested a bicameral legislature,
provincial
chambers, and a territorial compromise in which the Greek
Cypriot
side would administer at least 70 percent of the island.
The settlement process in the early 1980s was affected
by the
need for President Kyprianou to establish his credibility
and
demonstrate his loyalty to the national cause after the
death of
the charismatic Makarios. To many observers, it appeared
that
Kyprianou had less room for maneuver and was less
inclined, by
political preference or capability, to put forth new
strategic
positions. The election of a socialist government in
Athens in
October 1981 may also have affected the attitudes of the
parties;
Greek Cypriots welcomed Greek prime minister Andreas
Papandreou's
desire to "internationalize" the Cyprus problem, which
effectively
gave Greek Cypriots some breathing room in the
intercommunal
process. Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot leaders were
developing new
formulas and concepts of their own, and generally
disapproved of
efforts to internationalize the issue.
On November 15, 1983, after months of speculation, Rauf
Denkta
declared Turkish Cypriot statehood, on the basis of the
universal
right to self-determination. His proclamation, which cited
the
United States Declaration of Independence, declared the
establishment of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus"
("TRNC"). The move was not intended to block progress
toward
creating a federal republic, Denktas said. Rather, the
assertion of
the political identity and equality of the Turkish
Cypriots would,
in his view, enhance prospects for a new relationship
between the
two sides of the island. He also pledged that the new
state would
not join any other state, meaning Turkey.
The move was widely condemned by Western powers and the
UN. The
secretary general considered the declaration contrary to
past
Security Council resolutions and at odds with the
high-level
agreements of 1977 and 1979. The United States urged
nonrecognition
of the entity and joined a nearly unanimous Security
Council
resolution (541) which called for reversal of the
declaration.
(Jordan voted no; Pakistan abstained.)
Data as of January 1991
|
