BY ERDAL GUVEN
RADIKAL- The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared its independence on November 15, 1983 and was recognized by Turkey the very same day. But for the next 21 years, no other country extended recognition. How could this be? After the TRNC was founded, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 541 condemning the TRNC’s self-declared founding and calling on all UN members not to recognize any Cypriot state besides the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ (that is, Greek Cyprus). Therefore only Ankara recognized the TRNC and even if Turkey turned its nose up, the whole rest of the world recognizes the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ as the sole legal representative of the island.
The issue also carries a geopolitical aspect. The TRNC is a concrete form of separation in the context of international relations and was formed unilaterally as a result of military intervention by Turkey. However, today’s geopolitics frowns on separatism, micro-nationalism and political formations based on ethnicity excepting where there is mutual consent. On the contrary, today’s geopolitics favors integration based upon democracy, political equality and economic sharing. This is another political reason why the TRNC is not recognized. The interests and policies of countries faced with splits or threatened by separation are in line with this geopolitics. One of those countries is Azerbaijan, with its problem of upper Karabakh. The serious problem faced by Baku is that 20% of its land is currently occupied by Armenia and the upper Karabakh separatist movement. Therefore, the Azerbaijani representatives in the European Council’s Parliament were leaning towards not recognizing the TRNC. ‘The Parliament vote would mean recognizing the TRNC,’ said one Azerbaijani official. ‘This would set a risky precedent for the future recognition of the administration in upper Karabakh.’ This development should remind Turkey that in international relations there is no friendship or brotherhood, but only interests.