LEFKOSA/ISTANBUL
Young people in divided Cyprus have told Anadolu Agency they feel excluded from ongoing peace talks while a recent poll suggests that support for unification is declining.
Tomorrow is the fortieth anniversary of Turkey’s ‘Operation Atilla’ when thousands of troops were sent to protect the island’s Turkish population after a Greece-backed coup d’etat.
“If a referendum is conducted today, I believe most people would vote a ‘no’ as in 2004,” says Greek Cypriot Christiana Constantinou, a 29-year old international relations graduate in Istanbul, speaking in fluent Turkish.
In April 2004 a plan by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was proposed to reunify the island. Although Turkish Cypriots voted for the peace deal it was rejected by 76 percent of Greek Cypriots in a separate ballot.
A recent poll conducted between 2009 and 2012 and published last January by research group Interpeace suggests that support for a reunified Cyprus has declined on both sides.
Around 34 percent of Greek Cypriots said in 2009 that they would vote ‘no’ in a referendum while – in 2012 this figure rose to 51 percent. Their Turkish counterparts too have seemingly had a change of heart with 42 percent saying they would vote ‘no’ in 2012, an increase from 38 percent in 2009.
The island saw U.S. vice president Joe Biden visit in May, the first involvement by such a senior American official in more than 50 years. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to visit the island in the coming weeks.
Today, negotiations are ongoing between the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades who voted in favor of Annan plan in 2004.
Constantinou recalls Anastasiades regretting that decision: “He said mea culpa – my fault.”
“We tell the international community that we want reunification and that we will do everything for it, but the Greek Cypriot media say the opposite,” she says.
Constantinou wants reunification: “I have learnt from my family since I was a little child that Turkish Cypriots are not our enemy,” she adds.
Having lived in Istanbul for the last four years, Constantinou thinks that ordinary people are not kept informed by politicians about the talks.
Although the island is divided into Turkish and Greek zones, for some “there is one and only Cyprus”.
Twenty-six-year old Greek Cypriot Vasiliki Koukounidou says: “I don't think there is such a thing as a Turkish and Greek side of Cyprus.” Koukounidou believes in the country’s indivisibility.
She points to a lack of information about the ongoing talks which she describes as taking place “behind a closed door”. However, on reflection, she says that maybe “it is better”.
“I am strongly convinced that people who are against a solution to the Cyprus issue would never allow the process to move forward if every little detail was to be known,” she says.
Around 40 years have already passed and a completely new generation has grown up, says Koukounidou. “People should always be prepared for a solution instead of suddenly being brought to the position of voting to a referendum,” she adds.
Koukounidou suggests that both communities should establish trust building programmes: “Turkish and Greek Cypriots need to introduce a new way of history education which will not forget their own sufferings but will also remember the sufferings of the other,” she adds.
Some blame third-party involvement by Ankara and Athens in Cyprus. “If there is no third party in Cyprus, we can live together,” says Ayse Beyaz, a 27-year old Turkish Cypriot civil servant from Limasol.
“As our families lived in here together 40 years ago, we will continue live together by forgetting everything that has happened and without nourishing any hatred,” she says.
The rise of nationalism would obstruct reunification, says Ioanna Piniai, a 26-year old MA student on Turkish Literature at Cyprus University in Lefkosa/Nicosia.
Piniai suggests that the two communities should take steps in language and history teaching. “Both sides should be able to speak in Turkish and Greek. History teaching at schools has a nationalist discourse; the other side is pointed as the enemy in the classes.”
For some the only reason behind restart of the talks is newfound natural gas reserves off the island’s southern coast. Some experts see newfound energy resources in the island as a possible catalyst for peace between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
Twenty-eight year old Turkish Cypriot, Hasan, says: “Since the U.S. and Israel are supporting the distribution of the gas towards the Europe, we might end up with – if not a clear solution – at least a brief, rough economic reunification where all sides might benefit.”
He suggests both sides should learn to face their past mistakes, apologize and forgive their counterparts and themselves. “A truth and reconciliation commission as established in South Africa [after apartheid] could be a good start,” he adds.
Such a commission would have 40 years’ worth of distrust to deal with. It has been four long decades since the Turkish troops set foot on Cyprus but as this sun-drenched land comes to terms with a shared future, it could become an island of stability in an otherwise turbulent region.
www.aa.com.tr/en
