Same old song. Nothing has changed. Tufan Erhurman summed it up in a single sentence after the day-before-yesterday’s developments. Almost everyone else called them positive. All because, after a whole year of talks, held directly, through mediators and with the UN Secretary-General himself, we’re now being told how momentous it is that they’ve agreed to open crossings at Kambos and Louroujina.
The real issue, Erhurman told a press conference after his meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and María Ángela Holguín, is whether Greek Cypriots are ready to share power and natural wealth with Turkish Cypriots. So far, he said, “what we see is that they are not.”
Whatever happens, they’ll keep trotting out the same line, that Greek Cypriots aren’t ready to share power and natural wealth, so they can play the victim. What we’ve never heard, of course, is what Turkish Cypriots are prepared to share, or to offer, in return for a share of power and natural wealth.
Greek Cypriots have made it clear at every stage of the negotiations. They are ready to share power. They even accepted a rotating presidency to prove it, as long as the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation forces is agreed. The reason is simple: they don’t want to share power with Turkey.
The same goes for natural wealth. Laws have been passed, and assurances given, at the United Nations and in the Cyprus talks alike, that the Turkish Cypriot community’s share of natural wealth will be safeguarded come what may. We even had a president, Demetris Christofias, promise the UN General Assembly in 2011: “I want to assure our Turkish Cypriot compatriots that, regardless of circumstances, they will benefit from the fruits of any discovery and exploitation of hydrocarbons.”
Regardless of circumstances! Even that wasn’t enough for them.
So the real question is whether Turkish Cypriots are ready to take a share of power and natural wealth for themselves, for their own community. That’s one thing. It’s quite another to keep signalling, by every means available, that they want Greek Cypriots to share power and wealth with them, so that it can all be handed over to Turkey. That’s the reality, and let’s not kid ourselves. Some Greek Cypriots even repeat it, naively parroting the Turkish line that the problem is Greek Cypriots refusing to share power and natural wealth. They couldn’t be further off the mark!
So let’s turn the question around for once. What are Turkish Cypriots ready to share, or concede, when it comes to territory, security, settlers, the occupation army, Turkish guarantees, the country’s political and ideological direction, alliances with neighbouring states, the economy, the rights of Turkish nationals after a settlement, Turkey’s “interests”, the veto over everything.
On which of these, and the many other things that make up our problem, have Turkish Cypriots given even an inch in exchange for sharing power and wealth? Not on a single one. Because Turkish logic, which is passed off as the common sense of all humanity (what a joke!), says that Greek Cypriots must share power and wealth simply because they are weak in the face of Turkey, and have no right to demand anything at all.
Let me say it again, and I’ll keep saying it as often as I have to: Greek Cypriots have already agreed to power-sharing. At Crans-Montana, no less, the UN Secretary-General himself noted that “on governance and power-sharing, the sides were practically in full agreement.”
So where exactly is the problem, if there has been practically full agreement on power-sharing since 2017? It certainly isn’t whether a crossing opens at Kambos.
