The proposal legitimizes the continued presence on Cyprus of roughly equal numbers of Greek and Turkish troops. The two British bases on the island would also remain. The document is consistent with the 1959 Zurich Agreement drafted by London on the eve of independence. This incorporated the latter’s "right" to a military presence and authorized Athens and Ankara to militarily intervene. The UN plan legitimizes the division of the country between Greek and Turkish-occupied sections that followed intervention by both powers in 1974.

Along these lines, the plan proposes the creation of two autonomous regions, one Greek-Cypriot, the other Turkish-Cypriot, under a federated structure with a single citizenship. It calls for a parliament that includes a chamber of Deputies elected with proportional representation and a senate that would include equal numbers of Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots, while the territory’s presidency would rotate between members of the two communities.

This elaborate institutionalization of internal division and foreign domination extends to the proposed structure of the country’s highest court, which would consist of three Greek-Cypriot, three Turkish-Cypriot, and three "internationally appointed" judges..

Under the plan, area in the north dominated by the Turkish government would be reduced in size from its present 37 percent of the island to less than 29 percent. Two towns would be transferred to Greek-Cypriot sovereignty. Over the following 30 years 80,000 Greek-Cypriot refugees of the 200,000 who were forced out of the north in 1974 would return there. No mention is made of the tens of thousands of Turkish-Cypriot refugees created at that time. In this way the situation of the refugees would remain an open wound and an impediment to national unity.  
 
Captive destiny
The document’s call for "reunification" and independence of Cyprus, and similar lofty phrases, mask the reality that the island’s destiny remains captive to the interests of, and conflict among, the imperialist powers and the Turkish government. In reality the document addresses the disputes around the island’s status and role that have shadowed proposals to expand the imperialist-dominated European Union (EU). It also registers the strategic geographical position of the island state at a time when Washington is leading an imperialist drive to war in the Middle East.

Following a U.S.- and British-sponsored war resolution in the UN Security Council establishing a series of provocative "weapons inspections" of Iraq, the chief inspector, Hans Blix, has set up Cyprus as a forward post for the UN teams.

Along with Malta and eight Eastern European workers states, the Cypriot government has applied for membership of the EU. The decision on the applications will be finalized at the December 12 EU summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This application is a point of conflict between the Greek and Turkish governments. Athens, already an EU member, has declared that it will veto any expansion that does not include Cyprus. Ankara, on the other hand, has in the past warned that it will annex the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island if the southern part is admitted into the EU.

The Turkish application for membership has been stalled for a number of years, in spite of pressure on the key EU powers of Berlin and Paris from Washington, which regards Ankara as an important ally in its preparations for war on Iraq.  
 
Greek government welcomes plan
The Greek government responded positively to the proposals. "A commonly acceptable solution which will come to complement Cyprus’s EU accession will be an achievement of the first rank for our peoples," declared Prime Minister Constantinos Simitis at a November 11 press conference.

The former foreign minister of Greece and leader of Simitis’s Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Theodoros Pangalos, initially rejected the plan, saying that it gives "veto power to the Turks" in Cypriot affairs.

Forces on the right of bourgeois politics in Greece and Cyprus have also voiced nationalist opposition. The Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus stated that it legitimizes the 1974 Turkish invasion. Speaking at a protest against the plan in Nicosia, one politician--the former mayor of Kyrinia--fumed that the plan would encourage Ankara to make claims on the Aegean Sea and on Thrace, a northern Greek province that is home to an oppressed Turkish minority.

The Greek capitalists use the island as a platform for their shipping concerns and as a launch pad for investments in the Middle East. "We are interested in the region, we have clients in Lebanon and we would want to serve them through the base we have in Cyprus," said Athanasios Karahalios, the managing director of Hellenic Petroleum, Greece’s largest refining company.

These capitalists are also licking their lips at the prospect of a Cyprus that is forced to open up its economy as part of qualifying for EU membership. "Cyprus’s energy market is now a relatively closed one, with one state-controlled refinery.... There is also one electricity provider, the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. Those restrictions are likely to be eased when Cyprus joins the European Union," reported the Athens-based daily Kathimerini.

"We have to find a solution to the Cyprus issue. Otherwise, our power in Cyprus weakens," said Turkish prime minister-designate Abdullah Gul in a more muted response to the plan. Gul is a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which holds 65 percent of parliamentary seats following the November 3 elections in Turkey. "The document includes favorable aspects but also problematic aspects," he added in an interview with CNN.

Yasir Yakis, chief foreign policy aide for AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made Turkish support for Cyprus’s EU application contingent on success for Turkey’s bid, saying that "we believe completion of these negotiations should be simultaneous with Turkey’s accession negotiations."  
 
Prey of different empires
For hundreds of years Cyprus has been dominated by different imperial powers. A territory of the Ottoman Empire, it was secured by London as a colony in 1878, and became an important part of its military presence in the region. The British imperialists fostered divisions among ethnic Turks, Greeks, and other nationalities who inhabited the island. Greek landowners and merchants enjoyed a privileged status under this colonial setup. In 1960 the island won its formal independence.

For much of the 20th century the Greek imperialists also coveted the island, seeking to annex it under the slogan of "unity of the Greek nation." Following a massacre of Turkish Cypriots in 1964 UN imperialist troops arrived. They have been there ever since.

The Turkish-Cypriot minority constitutes an oppressed nationality within this semicolonial country. Their unemployment rate is double that of Greek-Cypriots, and their average income is one-seventh. Turkish-Cypriot workers provide a large chunk of cheap day-labor in the Greek-Cypriot areas, returning to their homes in the Turkish-occupied north at night

In the 1960s the Cypriot government of Archbishop Makarios moved hesitantly in the direction of making Cyprus independent of both London and Athens. It refused to join the U.S.-dominated NATO military alliance and became a prominent member of the Nonaligned Movement in 1961.

Thirteen years later the Greek military government--installed by a U.S.-supported coup--used troops garrisoned on Cyprus in a coup that overturned the Makarios government. This in turn gave Ankara the pretext to launch its own intervention, citing concern for the safety of the Turkish-Cypriot inhabitants.

UN and British troops stood by as Cypriot armed forces resisted the July 20 Turkish invasion for two days until a cease-fire was declared. Opposition to the Cyprus coup and the Greek military’s hand in it helped loosen the Greek army’s hold on the governments of both Greece and Cyprus. Parliamentary rule was restored in both before the month was out. In spite of these events, Cyprus remained divided and occupied.

The recent killings of two Greek-Cypriots by Turkish occupation forces and their supporters have once again given the world a glimpse at a prospect that a few years ago would have been unthinkable: war within NATO’s southern flank.

The rulers of Greece, faced with a deep economic crisis, are betting their economic survival on expanding their role throughout the region of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus. In their attempts at economic expansion, Athens comes up not only against its imperialist rivals, but also the capitalist rulers of Turkey. They have used this recent episode to whip up nationalist anti-Turkish sentiment and attempt to rally working people around their massive militarization and austerity program.

Twenty-two years ago the military dictatorship then running Greece staged a military coup in Cyprus with the aim of annexation.

The rulers of Turkey responded by occupying the island’s northern third, allegedly to protect the Turkish-Cypriot minority, and installed a puppet military regime. Greek and Turkish rulers are both responsible for partition, as well as British imperialism, which maintains two bases there, and Washington.

Working-class forces on both sides of the buffer zone must begin to answer the Greek and Turkish rulers’ chauvinist campaign, which leads only to war and permanent partition. Such a united answer can begin to give lie to the rulers’ claim that "Greeks and Turks cannot live together."

All foreign troops deployed in Cyprus are an obstacle to reunification and independence. British, UN, and Greek imperialist troops, as well as Turkish occupation forces, must be removed from Cypriot soil.

The right to return of all refugees forcibly removed from their lands through the occupation and its aftermath--200,000 Greek- and 30,000 Turkish-Cypriots--must be guaranteed.

Unification can only be achieved on the basis of respect for the rights of the historically oppressed Turkish-Cypriot minority, including that of self-determination.  
 
 
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