Hayvanlar Adası, 25 Nisan 2003
Turgut Durduran
Has the Wall Toppled Down in Cyprus? NO!
Cypriot people are very excited these days. After an unprecendent series of events through the last couple of months, Denktash' regime in north Cyprus announced that Cypriots of all varieties can cross the Green Line. Is this an indication that "The Wall" , the "Green Line" has topppled down? Atleast this is how a Turkish newspaper wanted to portray it as. According to them Denktash has become a hero.
There was a rumour that was circulating after the collapse of the negotiations around the so-called "Annan Plan" to solve the Cyprus problem that following the signing of the EU accession treaty by Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot side would introduce such drastic measures. People did not want to believe this since in the past similar rumours proved to be false hopes and the only type of rumours that were becoming realities were those about integrating north Cyprus to Turkey (which is happening alongside the moves currently). It went along with the moves by Republic of Cyprus (RoC) to introduce a package to help the Turkish Cypriot community through a series of measures allowing them to obtain RoC passports more easily, to have representatives in the government and to even vote in the elections.
First came an announcement which said that Turkish Cypriots are now allowed to trade with Greek Cypriots. Although potentially a serious move, it was not received with much excitement. After all, how can one practically trade with people they are not allowed to talk to?
At this point a quick run through about some relevant parts of the situation is in order. There is a border or rather a cease-fire line dividing Cyprus into two. It is called the "Green Line" and is likened to the Berlin Wall in some sense. It divides the capital city Nicosia into two where piles of barrels filled with sand or cement and lenghened with barbed wire is a common sight. There was no postal service, no phone lines (except for few operated by the UN and recently increased in number), no trade, no free movement across the Green Line. Very arbitrary, tiresome, humiliating bureocracy was necessary to cross the line. It was mostly controlled by the military authorities which was conveniently hidden behind the foreign ministry of the Turkish Cypriot government. Over the years thousands of Cypriots joined a variety of movements, mostly along American originated conflict resolution groups and managed to cross the border. Political figures, activists were regularly harrased by the authorities in north Cyprus and were sometimes black listed. A recent case won by Ahmet An at ECHR established this as a violation of basic human rights and held Turkey (once again) to be responsible for north Cyprus as an occupying power. Internet was perhaps one of the best things that happened in terms of cross-Green Line communication and organization until few days ago. A pathetic situation is not it?
Few days ago there was an announcement that the council of ministers in north Cyprus decided to allow cross-visits with a variety of restrictions, mainly on the amount of time that could be spent on the "other side". This was a shock to everyone except probably to those who planned it. It was a move that came some 30 years too late and resembled the attempts to normalize the relations between too communities in 1967. Cypriots from both communities has been calling for freedom of movement for decades now. Suddenly a close approximation was announced. To repeat myself, does this mean that the Wall has toppled down? My answer is a strong NO! It certainly does not mean that.
Why not? The reality in the island has changed only slightly after this move. The division is still there, north Cyprus is still controlled by Turkey and its collaborators in the Turkish Cypriot community. Cypriots do not exercise joint-control over the whole island. Massive military build-up, specifically the some 30-40,000 strong Turkish army is still on the island. There are no phone lines, no postal service, no proper trade, no freedom of movement across the island. The check-points are still there. The physical wall itself is still there. The mine fields still exist. Militaries still patrol the Green Line. Therefore, it could take the fake authority in north Cyprus to simply announce the closure of the check-points to reverse the situation which could be triggered by many many different reasons.
Denktash is not a hero as Hurriyet newspaper portrayed him. TRNC is not recognized as Volkan newspaper portrayed it. Cypriot people did not win their struggle as Yeniduzen newspaper portrayed it. Our will, as the Turkish Cypriot people is still being controlled by the foreigners. We are being herded and those not following the herd still faces a pack of wolves. Cypriots in general are still unable to exercise what should have been their basic rights. Denktash and his regime alonside their mentors in Turkey are still responsible for many crimes that are still being commited in Cyprus.
Should we really be suprised that such a move came following another supposedly positive move by Denktash where he re-invented the decade old confidence building measures and proposed them as a sign of good-will from his side? Right when he was being blamed as the main reason behind the failure of talks? All this while his authority was very openly challanged by tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots attending mass demonstrations? When I think back, I realized that we should not be suprised at all. It is a clever trick to divert the attention and create an atmosphere where many Turkish Cypriots attending those demonstrations may be compelled to accept as a large step away from Denktash's years old separatist strategies towards a normalized state of affairs. Unfortunately, the leading political party of the opposition may be willing to accept this as a reality too. Specially since after the failure of the talks, it was aiming at winning the upcoming elections and entertaining notions from the chavunist right rather than picking up on the momentum that was created and walking the more radical line.
There are also some indicators in the right-wing, chavunist media -- which has historically made implicit threats and "predictions" that were followed by extremist violence and political moves -- that there may be some "negative action in the cooking". First of all, they begun announcing that the thousands of Greek Cypriots crossing to north meant recognition of TRNC and its institutions. This move is clearly to provocate Greek Cypriots who are already over-cautious about such implications to force their government to take some measures against cross-visits -- a bad public relations move ultimately. Secondly, many political figures including Denktash himself and Mumtaz Soysal (an advisor to Denktash and a figure from Turkey with close relations to the so-called "deep state" in Turkey and its military-civilian foreign ministry bureocracy) talked about testing the ability of Cypriots to live together or as neighbours. This may look like a fairly benign and obvious thing to say but past experience makes one worry that it is an indicator that some inter-communal problems can be created and over-blown to seal the Green Line and try to secure the division of the island. Why should not we be suspicious of such moves? Same Denktash has admitted that his friends were responsible for bombings in the past which ignited inter-communal violence and were blamed on Greek Cypriots. Same "deep-state" in Turkey is responsible for hundreds of acts of state-terrorism that led to mass riots and masacres in some instances. Same people are suspected to be behind the bombings, attacks and a murder against the Turkish Cypriot opposition. Same right-wing media was carrying the signals at those times in a similar manner.
I have so far outlined a very pessimistic picture of the situation from the Turkish Cypriot perspective which is unfair. There are many positive sides of this story which having not had the chance to be in Cyprus to experience it first hand, I will describe very briefly.
First of all, we should not forget "the people" factor. Cypriot people once again has shown their civility and willingness to unite their island by crossing the border in both directions in thousands. Homes were visited. Old photos were exchanged. Old friendships were renewed. People waited for hours to cross the border with determination. An unknown part of their island was now visible for Cypriot youth who has grown-up after the division in 1974. Old memories resurfaced, new ones are being created. This is something that no political trickery, no bureoratic requirement, no rhetoric should dilute. It is a very humane picture and we deserved it. We deserve better. Everyone deserves better. The "enemy other" picture portrayed by chavunists in both sides was slowly being shattered over years and in these few days the pieces flew all over the place.
This also brings up exciting new possibilities of communication which was a key obstacle in front of establishing joint political movements. A re-united Cyprus should not be a prerequisite for acting as a whole. I always believed in this and tried to use all tools and resources I had available to help that cause. Now, I think there is a potential to take a giant step towards that goal. Once the initial excitement subsides a little bit and hopefully , once this new reality becomes a norm in few weeks (or even days) , we should use this to our advantage to exercise another one of our basic rights; "right to organize". We need to this to reach our ultimate goals aswell as to counter-act the above pessimistic scenarios. I am now begining to imagine a joint protest in both sides of Cyprus attended by mixed crowds of Cypriots -- which could potentially bring us closer to the velvet revolution than simply crossing the borders. The ties that have already been established by organizations in both sides can now become much stronger. What was the dream of some small fractions in the Cypriot left has a better chance of becoming a reality now, i.e what was read from books, heard in speeches of joint Cypriot political movements mainly labour movements.
Can we take matters to our hands and really topple down the wall? I think this is the question we need to ask even louder now. We can not wait, we have to take the ropes to our hands immediately before they can destroy the tiny bit of happiness they granted for us.