The T.M.T. leaders, at the instigation of Turkey, were all along trying to promote a
"solution" to the problem aiming ultimately at the island's division. Proposals were put
forward for direct partition or for federation envisaging removal of populations and the
setting up of two distinct administrations for the purpose of creating separate national and
racial areas.
The idea of federation in Cyprus was examined in 1956, when the island was still a British
colony, by the eminent constitutional expert, Lord Radcliffe, who, in his "Constitutional
Proposals for Cyprus", said the following on the subject:
"It would be natural enough to accord to members of a federation equality of representation
in the federal body, regardless of the numerical proportions of the populations of the
territories they represent. But can Cyprus be organised as a federation in this way? I do
not think so. There is no pattern of territorial separation between the two communities and
apart from other objections, federation of communities which does not involve also
federation of territories seems to me a very difficult constitutional form".
The United Nations mediator, Dr. Galo Plaza, was of the same opinion. In his report he
said:
"To my mind the objections raised (against federation) also on economic, social and moral
grounds are in themselves serious obstacles to the proposition. It would seem to require a
compulsory movement of the people concerned - many thousands on both sides - contrary
to all enlightened principles of the present time, including those set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human RightsÉ" (S/62555, para. 153).
"It is essential to be clear what this proposal implies. To refer to it simply as Ôfederation' is
to oversimplify the matter. What is involved is not merely to establish a federal form of
government but also to secure the geographical separation of the two communities. The
establishment of a federal regime requires a territorial basis and this basis does not exist. In
an earlier part of this report I explained the island-wide intermingling in normal times of the
Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot populations. The events since December 1963 have
not basically altered this characteristic: even the enclaves where numbers of Turkish
Cypriots concentrated following the troubles are widely scattered over the island, while
thousands of other Turkish Cypriots have remained in mixed villages" (S/62555, para
150). Elsewhere in his report Dr. Plaza stated:
"In fact the arguments for the geographical separation of the two communities under a
federal system of government have not convinced me that it would not inevitably lead to
partitionÉ" (S/62555 para. 154).
"Again if the purpose of a settlement of the Cyprus question is to be the preservation rather
than the destruction of the state and if it is to foster rather than to militate against the
development of a peacefully united people, I cannot help wondering whether the physical
division of the minority from the majority should not be considered a desperate step in the
wrong direction. I am reluctant to believe, as the Turkish Cypriot leadership claims, in the
Ôimpossibility' of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots learning to live together again in
peace. In those parts of the country where movement controls have been relaxed and
tensions reduced they are already proving otherwise" (S/62555, para. 155).
