María Ángela Holguín has given yet another interview, and yet again it exposes the hypocrisy of an international community faced with an occupation that never seems to end. She told the newspaper Alithia, more than five times over, that the responsibility, the decisions and the future all belong to the Cypriots.
“The resumption of negotiations depends on the two sides.”
“The final decision depends on the two sides.”
“The prospect of a solution to the Cyprus problem depends on the Cypriots themselves.”
“The decision to move the process forward rests with the leaders and, above all, with the Cypriots themselves.”
Every answer, every angle, the same refrain. Perhaps it’s Colombia’s civil war talking: guerrillas holding 30 to 40 per cent of the country on one side, government forces on the other, 60 years of fighting, thousands dead. Or perhaps it’s the “conflict resolution” theories we have been choking on for half a century. Theories and hot air!
Here’s the thing. In the Cyprus dispute, no mediator gets anywhere by shoving the single most important part of the equation in a drawer and pinning the outcome on “the Cypriots themselves”. In the entire interview, Turkey came up in exactly one question. She was asked what she wanted from Ankara to get talks restarted. And once again, her answer airbrushed Turkey out of the picture. She said she was in touch with the three guarantor powers, then made very sure to repeat: “However, the final decision rests with the Cypriot leaders and the Cypriots themselves.”
How exactly is Holguín, or any other mediator, supposed to help broker a settlement when they write the heart of the problem out of the script, or simply refuse to get it? They talk as though this were a domestic squabble between two communities. A religious feud, even. An internal conflict that broke out because, say, two tribal warlords split the population and declared a revolution, one Christian, one Muslim. Each rallied his own faithful, each carved out his fiefdom facing the other’s, and now along comes Holguín to help them lay down their arms so they can live happily ever after, and the rest of us happier still.
Is she not listening? Even to open the road between Athienou and Aglandjia, and to agree the confidence-building measure on crossing points she so badly wants, she is told the army won’t allow it. Which army? The Turkish army. The occupying army. Do the other guarantors have occupation armies of their own, policing the ceasefire line and deciding which crossings open?
Or are the other guarantors also planning an undersea pipeline from Turkey to occupied Kyrenia, to pipe gas in (and, mostly, pipe it out)? On Monday, a fresh Turkish NAVTEX went out for seabed surveys by four Turkish ships off Cyprus, as groundwork for that very pipeline. Or do the other guarantors keep military drone bases on the island too?
So, enough of the hot air. Perhaps Holguín would care to explain exactly how the prospect of a solution depends on the Cypriots themselves? Is there any way the Cypriots can decide on a solution, or even on restarting talks, without Ankara’s say-so? It’s not enough that, despite their role, they stomach 40,000 occupation troops and everything Turkey does to Cyprus. They have to make fools of us as well!
