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Cyprus The Quest for Recognition
Most Turkish Cypriot foreign policy efforts were
focused on
achieving recognition of the "TRNC" and explaining the
Turkish
Cypriot position on the settlement process. The "TRNC" had
one
Embassy, in Ankara, two consulates, in Istanbul and
Mersin, and
five representation missions, in London, Washington, New
York,
Brussels, and Islamabad. These missions did not have
diplomatic
status. In 1990 there were reports that additional
missions might
be opened in Abu Dhabi, Canada, Australia, Italy, and
Germany.
The Islamic nations were the key target of Turkish
Cypriot
recognition efforts. In wooing Islamic support, Turkish
Cypriot
officials emphasized the religious aspect of the Cyprus
conflict
and stressed the importance of Muslim solidarity. Meetings
of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), in which
Turkey
played an increasingly active role in the 1980s, were an
important
focus for the "TRNC." The OIC passed several resolutions
urging
economic support and cultural contact with the Turkish
Cypriots,
but stopped short of embracing the recognition issue. Many
Arab
Islamic countries had ambivalent relations with Turkey,
because of
the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, and also because they
wished to
maintain good relations with the Republic of Cyprus, which
served
as a financial center and entrepôt for Middle Eastern
business
activity. These reservations inhibited the "TRNC" in
seeking to
achieve its goals in the Islamic world. Among these
countries,
Pakistan, Jordan, and Bangladesh were considered the
strongest
supporters of the Turkish Cypriot cause.
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The literature on Cyprus in the decade of the 1980s
concentrated heavily on the intercommunal talks and UN
efforts to
achieve a settlement to the island's political dispute.
There was
little scholarly or journalistic coverage of the politics
of the
two communities, separate from the politics of the
settlement
question. Nonetheless, elections in the Republic of Cyprus
and in
the "TRNC" provided opportunities to examine more closely
the
players and the political dynamics in each community. One
particularly useful journalistic account was the 1990
New
Yorker article by Mary Ann Weaver, reviewing the
evolution of
views in both communities and describing vividly the
political and
diplomatic atmosphere on the island. Also of note is
Robert
McDonald's International Institute for Strategic Studies
monograph
The Problem of Cyprus published in 1989. Other
major sources
of information on settlement positions were official
newsletters
and fact sheets. The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in
Washington published a monthly bulletin that carefully
tracked
government positions and occasionally featured information
on
domestic politics. The Washington office of the "TRNC"
representative also distributed occasional fact sheets and
position
papers. Hearings and reports of the United States Congress
were
informative on the debate between Congress and the
Executive over
United States policy on Cyprus, and on United States
perceptions of
the status of settlement efforts. Such documents can be
purchased
from the United States Government Printing Office.
Several books, including edited volumes of articles on
Cyprus,
were published in the 1980s, providing different
perspectives on
the situation and on prospects for a settlement. Cyprus
in
Transition, 1960-1985 was edited by John T.A.
Koumoulides and
published in England. It contains several retrospective
articles
mostly from the perspectives of outside players in Cypriot
affairs:
the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Nations,
and
others. The Canadian Institute for International Peace and
Security
published in 1991 a volume of articles from a workshop
series on
conflict resolution on Cyprus. The volume again reviews
the
positions of external players as well as Cypriots, and
contains
several useful chapters by Cypriots discussing
confidence-building
measures and cultural and sociological factors in
settlement
efforts. Tozun Bahcheli's Greek-Turkish Relations since
1955
also contains useful coverage of the Cyprus issue, in its
foreign
policy dimensions.
Given the importance of legal and constitutional
aspects in a
settlement, lawyers and legal officials from both
communities
published books on these issues. Polyvio G. Polyviou's
Cyprus--
In Search of a Constitution examines the legal and
political
aspects of the constitution that Greek Cypriots still
support. Zaim
M. Necatigil, the Attorney General of the "TRNC,"
published two
books that provide the Turkish Cypriot perspective on
these
matters: The Cyprus Conflict: A Lawyers view
(1981); and
The Cyprus Question and the Turkish Position in
International
Law (1989).
Data as of January 1991
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