Cyprus News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-04-20

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] Hanney: Occupation regime should not ask for recognition

2010:CYPPRESS:01

[01] Hanney: Occupation regime should not ask for recognition

Responding to a question, whether the northern illegal entity unilaterally established in the northern Turkish occupied part of the island should be recognised as an independent state, Sir David pointed out that no country recognises the self-proclaimed entity, despite its efforts to gain such recognition since 1983.

"The north Cyprus has been trying for recognition for ten years and it is only recognised by one country, Turkey. The other 184 countries in the UN do not recognise it because the UN Security Council some 25 years ago decided that the Republic of Cyprus was represented by the government of Cyprus", he said.

"I think", he added, that if you have gone on for that long and you are only recognised by one country, it is probably wise to recognise you are on a losing streak and that you better turn your eyes in a different direction."

Stressing that the regime in the north should "not try to get recognition for the part of a country which is in any case disproportionate to the population and established by force", he suggested that the way to "achieve the objectives of Turkish Cypriots" is "through a federate state which is what the UN plan offers."

Such a state, he explained, would allow for "quite a high level of regional autonomy for Turkish Cypriots who will be masters in their house for a whole range of issues, like education, health and transport."

Turkish Cypriots, he added, should "pull their sovereignty at any rate for the main issues of foreign affairs, taxation, money and so on", noting that, "that could work and it is going to be put to the test later this year." He expressed the hope it will be "more successful than it has been before."

Describing the Cyprus problem as "very intractable", Sir David said it is too soon to say whether the UN initiative underway will be successful, but pointed out that due to rising tensions on the island and its prospects of joining the European Union "this time we shall not stumble as we have done before."

Asked what in his view is the main stumbling block which has made a negotiated settlement in Cyprus so elusive over the years, the British diplomat said "there is no simple answer", but pointed out three factors as the most important ones.

"I think the two communities have grown very far apart in recent years and they do find it very difficult to make the compromises that will have to be made to get a settlement", he said, adding that loss of contact between Greek and Turkish Cypriots "has greatly weakened grass-root support for getting a settlement."

As a second factor, he pointed out to the fact that the Cyprus problem "has not been very high up in the international agenda, so there has not perhaps been as much help from the outside in leading the two communities together."

"Finally", he said, "I think there has been a slightly over-comfortable status quo, that is to say the situation in Cyprus has not been so bad that people felt that it is absolutely imperative to get a settlement."

Noting that the "large number of Turkish troops (in the northern occupied part of the island) is not compatible with a settlement" he added however, that "ever-increasing armaments, acquisition of surface-air missiles and so on, on the Greek Cypriot side" also acts as an obstacle.

"We have got to somehow turn away from that and built down rather than built up armaments", he said.

Referring to Turkey's aspirations for joining the EU, Sir David said, "Turkey has always posed a great problem in its application to join the EU" and noted "objective difficulties" which he named as economic and concerning respect for human rights.

"I do not think myself, that those problems are "insurmountable", he said, and added "we certainly do not remove from Turkey the aspiration which it has set itself to join the EU one day."

Responding to the same questions, Tarek Ali, writer and film-maker, also a guest at Question Time, described the division of Cyprus as "one of the major tragedies of the 70s"

"I personally was very hostile to it and I felt it was something which was totally avoidable", he said stressing that Turkish intervention is "forcing this division through."

Noting that "once you partition a country unfortunately it develops a logic of its own and it is very difficult to undo a partition", he said that in the advantage in the case of Cyprus is the EU prospect and expressed the hope that "deal could be struck so that certain tensions could be decreased."

"I would be opposed to recognising two separate Cyprus. In the case of this particular island it really does not make sense at all", he stressed.

Similar views were also expressed by the third guest on "Question Time", Ann Marie Ubi, Executive Director in Britain of the international non- governmental organisation "Doctors Without Borders".

"It would be utterly depressing, as the prospect for joining Europe takes place, that we will have to recognise a partition based on ethnic or nationalistic lines", she said.

"One would hope that with the prospect of belonging to Europe and that would apply equally to Turkey as well in the long run that kind of antagonism should be reduced in favour of greater freedoms and greater economic and other exchanges."

CNA MM/MCH/KN/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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