BEIRUT: Although the world, Turkey included, is occupied by events in Afghanistan, Turkish officials are giving a lot of time to the question which is one of the most significant of Turkish foreign policy the question of Cyprus. Turkey is not prepared to let Cyprus slip through its fingers and fall entirely under Greek control. That would turn the northeast Mediterranean into a Greek lake and Greece’s maritime stranglehold on Turkey from the South would become stronger.
Therefore Cyprus is not just a foreign affairs problem. With Turkey’s plans to play the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline which will carry the oil and gas of Azerbaijan and Qazvin to international markets over Turkish territory and from the port of Ceyhan in the gulf of Alexandretta, there is another strategic reason for Turkey to maintain its presence and influence in Cyprus that is the protection of the oil-related importance of gulf of Alexandretta described by some Turks as another gulf for oil - indeed a competitor of the Arabian Gulf.
It began in the Helsinki summit which in a historic step agreed to consider Turkey as a candidate to join the European Union. However — and this is what caused the tension — the EU linked that start of negotiations for Turkey’s full membership with a solution for the Cyprus question before the autumn of 2002.
If a solution has not been reached by that date the EU is free to act and would begin full membership negotiations with the Greek Cypriots paving the way for Cyprus’ full membership by 2004. This European decision was a blow to all Turkey’s policies towards the island and which concentrate on a “non-solution”.
The Turks considered the decision at the summit to be a threat to the status quo because it opened the door for Cyprus’ membership of the EU without that being conditional on finding a solution. This would not lead to Greek Cypriots to renounce the conflict on the contrary it would encourage them to become even more strident against Ankara because their membership of the EU is guaranteed.
European pressure on Ankara ratched up when the European Parliament took an important decision in the summer which said that Turkey should find a solution for Cyprus and withdraw its troops from the island or else its hope for full membership of the EU would go unfulfilled.
This was considered by Ankara to be a very dangerous escalation in that it would harden the Greek Cypriots’ negotiating position - Cyprus’ membership in the Union being secured with or without a solution for the island.
So whenever Turkey thought itself on the way to the EU, it would in reality find itself getting further and further away from it. This is what angers Turks about Europe’s policies of double standards and not taking into consideration the reality that the island is divided into two societies and two countries.
With the deadline of next autumn looming closer the signs of tension in Ankara’s statements increase. The past few weeks have witnessed a series of sharp exchanges which point to a period of tension which will surround the relationship between Ankara and the European Union.
Some Turkish sources have conveyed Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides’ preparedness to accept a solution based on two independent societies and territories a reduction of the number of Turkish troops on the island in preparation for their complete withdrawal, freedom of exchanges of movement between the two areas and a single representation of Cyprus abroad.
