Hello, my friends my name is Chris Elliott and I would like to wish you a belated Happy New Year and let’s just look back at 2023 and early 2024 and see what has been happening.

For anybody living in Northern Cyprus or the TRNC the ongoing saga of non-recognition continues and our President Ersin Tatar continues the fight with the support of Turkey to lobby many countries for recognition and the acceptance of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as an observer member of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) was achieved.

However, the European Union has rejected this decision and considers the TRNC as an internationally non recognized entity following objections from the so-called Republic of Cyprus (RoC). So did the EU break rules by allowing the RoC membership of the EU?.

Here are some statements made on this issue:

- The Republic of Cyprus became a member of the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004.

- The EU has a set of criteria that countries must meet to become members, including political, economic, and legal requirements.

- The EU has not broken any of its own rules by allowing the Republic of Cyprus to become a member while the island was still divided. The EU has always supported the reunification of Cyprus and has been working towards this goal for many years. However, the EU has expressed concern over the ongoing division of the island and has called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

So how was the Republic of Cyprus formed?

The Republic of Cyprus was formed on August 16th 1960 and it was admitted as a member of the United Nations on the same day. The British government agreed to provide financial assistance over a period of five years, and Cyprus gained membership in the Commonwealth in March 1961.

- The formation of the Republic of Cyprus was the result of a long struggle for independence from British colonial rule.

- The constitution of the Republic of Cyprus was based on a power-sharing agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities and the president of the republic was to be a Greek Cypriot, while the vice-president was to be a Turkish Cypriot.

- The constitution also provided for a bicameral legislature, with the House of Representatives consisting of 50 Greek Cypriot and 50 Turkish Cypriot members.

So why, in1963 and before did  Greek Cypriots of Cyprus push for Enosis with Greece which resulted in attacks on the Turkish Cypriots but why was this?

The Akritas Plan was a secret document authored by the Greek Cypriot leadership in collusion with Greek Army officers in 1963 and the plan aimed to dissolve the Republic of Cyprus in predetermined stages and methods, and to bring about the union of Cyprus with Greece, i.e., Enosis. 

The plan provided for the creation of an underground army which would suppress any resistance by the Turks, most forcefully, and in the shortest possible time, and make the Greek Cypriots masters of the situation “within a day or two, before outside intervention would be possible, probable, or justifiable.

So with the Enosis and Akritas plans in full swings history shows that the Turkish Cypriots were forced out of the RoC government and its people subject to ethnic cleansing and forced into ghettos for their protection with the UN being unable to do very little to control the situation.

Turkey was one of the three guarantor powers of the Republic of Cyprus agreement, along with Greece and the United Kingdom and the Treaty of Guarantee, which was signed by Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom on August 16, 1960, requiring the guarantor powers to guarantee the independence, territorial integrity, and security of Cyprus.

The treaty also allowed the guarantor powers to take action to re-establish the current state of affairs in Cyprus, a provision that was used as justification for the Turkish intervention of 1974 when the United Kingdom refused to help as a guarantor power and since then the UN have been trying to encourage both sides of Cyprus to come together and sadly the UN have promoted many peace plans including the famous Annan Plan of which so many have been rejected by the Greek Cypriots. So where do we go from here?

Increasingly the UN have been displaying their bias against the TRNC through actions that have been taken with problems when they should remain neutral but sadly they have become conditioned to accept that the RoC demands should be enacted.

And then up pops Irfan Siddiq recently, the British High Commissioner to Southern Cyprus who was strongly criticised  by TRNC Minister of Foreign Affairs Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu. According to the TRNC Public Information Office, their Minister noted that Siddiq, not only exceeded the limits of diplomatic courtesy but also made a habit of exceeding the limits of decency, started to perceive insulting the TRNC and the Turkish Cypriot as a virtue. 

 Minister Ertugruloglu strongly reacted to Siddiq’s remarks and said, “Siddiq with his statements, is acting like a member of ELAM, more Greek Cypriot than a Greek Cypriot. Instead of following a well-balanced policy, due to being of Pakistan origin, he is endeavoring to look nice to the Greek Cypriot side”. click here

The future for Cyprus perhaps will remain unchanged for years to come as the Greek Cypriots want total control of the island and its people when the TRNC and Turkey now want a 2 State Solution so will that ever happen?

In the meanwhile the world, the US, UN and EU blindly accept the impasse and reality and as one UN Observer once said of the Cyprus Issue, “The Turks can’t Forget and the Greeks can’t Remember” so perhaps the UN should pack their bags and go off to other countries like Ukraine or Gaza where they can do a real job of stopping and solving real wars as there has been peace on Cyprus since 1974.
https://cyprusscene.com/2024/01/27/why-is-the-un-struggling-to-get-the-cyprob-solved/