HURRIYET- Columnist Sedat Ergin comments on the United Nation’s solution proposal on the Cyprus issue. A summary of his column is as follows:
Perhaps no UN solution proposal on the Cyprus question has ever created such excitement as the recent plan presented by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Behind the current tense discussion lies that fact that the Turkish side’s stance on the proposal is closely linked to Turkey’s EU membership bid, a bid on which the future of the nation’s 67 million people is hanging. Is this proposal a completely unacceptable one to which the Turkish side should be dead opposed? Or, is it rather a perfect plan to be adopted urgently without any further assessment? Unfortunately, the heated debate on the question is being dominated by circles espousing these two diametrically opposed views.
Of course, the proposal has both certain pluses and minuses. Yet, a workable settlement may also be reached if the following points are taken into account:
The plan, although it has certain shortcomings, does recognize the political equality of the Turkish side. Yet, the proposal’s sections on the issues of sovereignty and political equality should be further elaborated. In the last instance, the Greek Cypriots, too, will come to agree on living under a rotating presidential system, and thus occasionally under a Turkish president.
The plan needs substantial revision concerning the re-mapping of the island. The border between the Greek and Turkish lands has to be redrawn as a straight line. Nevertheless, everyone has to get psychologically prepared for the fact that in the interests of a permanent solution, the Turkish side will have to hand over excessive amounts of land.
One unacceptable point of the proposal concerns the Greek population’s ownership rights to immovable property which they left behind in the Turkish territory after Turkey’s 1974 Peace Operation. The problem of such immovable property should be solved through the principles of clearing and compensation.
Also needing revision are the quotas on the numbers of Greek Cypriots to be allowed to live on the Turkish side. The UN proposal opens the door for the settlement on Turkish territory of Greek Cypriots adding up to, by 2020, fully one-third of the Turkish population of the island. The proposed quotas must be lowered.
The UN’s solution proposal was prepared and presented in such a fashion that it was meant to push certain limits on both the Greek and Turkish side. Of course, when the Turkish side sits down to the negotiating table, it will try to reduce the number of minuses of the proposal. But it would be completely unacceptable to put our signature on the plan in its current state. To the extent that it can wisely play its cards against Europe and take advantage of the US diplomacy on the EU, Turkey will be able to establish a delicate balance between settling the Cyprus issue and its EU membership bid.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION