BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland, 31 March 2004 — Even if a Cyprus peace deal uniting Greek and Turkish Cypriots goes ahead, the island is set to remain a playground for foreign soldiers.
The presence of Greek, Turkish, and British troops, as well as UN peacekeepers, in what would become a European Union nation if all goes well, could turn the tourist island into a festering strategic sore for NATO and a diplomatic nightmare.
The latest Cyprus plan by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan envisages the indefinite stay of troops from Turkey and Greece - NATO members who have come to the brink of war in the past over territorial disputes in the Aegean.
Britain, the former colonial power in Cyprus, will maintain its two bases on the island, while the 1,200-strong UN peacekeeping force there will triple in size. The military aspect troubles Greek Cypriots and Greece who saw the island partitioned by a 1974 Turkish invasion in response to a brief Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens.
“Our observations (on the UN plan) mainly focus on security issues,” Greek government spokesman Thodoris Rousopoulos said.
Both Greeks and their ethnic Cypriot brethren had hoped the new plan would remove all forces from the island. But while Greek and Turkish forces would be scaled down within two years of reunification, and Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot armies would be dismantled, many troops would remain.
At present there are about 30,000 Turkish troops, about 5,000 Greek and 3,000 British spread through the island where, despite the numbers, barely a shot has been fired in anger in the 30 years since the island was divided.
Turkish Cypriots believe there must always be a Turkish military presence to protect them as a minority community on an island where about two-thirds of the 800,000 people are Greek.
In the 1960s, inter-communal violence in which Turkish Cypriots were the main victims followed collapse of a power-sharing government which eventually led to Turkey’s invasion.
“Greek and Turkish forces and armaments shall be redeployed to agreed locations and adjusted to agreed levels,” the UN plan says.
Greek Cypriot government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said: “The important point is...that Turkish troops remain (on the island) even after Turkey joins the EU.”
Brussels will decide in December whether to set a date for the start of entry negotiations with EU hopeful Turkey. The 6,000 troops each that Greece and Turkey can base on the island under the plan will remain there until 2011. That number must drop to 3,000 each by 2018 or earlier if Turkey joins the European Union.
But even if Turkey becomes an EU member like Greece, they can station 650 and 950 troops respectively.
That, say Greeks and Greek Cypriots, is not good enough. The Greek daily Eleftehrotypia called military provisions in the plan “A gift to Ankara”.
The troops’ role will be to maintain constitutional order, with intervention rights to crack down on any violence in either of the two communities.
