The same old song
HERE we go again. The UK Foreign Office (FO) is still stuck in the same old Cyprus groove. In the House of Lords, Lord Maginnis, that ever faithful, TRNC-supporting warhorse, has been at it again. He asked the FO what the difference is between their attitudes to the TRNC and Taiwan (both unrecognised by UK), especially as they allow a closely cooperative relationship with Taiwan and deny it to the TRNC, direct flights being one example.
We should not be surprised by the reply: “The northern part of Cyprus and Taiwan are two very different political realities,” Baroness Sugg of the FO announced. Are they really? Well, if they are, that is the choice of the UK government, slavishly following the UN and EU lines on the matter, best exemplified by the Baroness’s refusal to call “northern Cyprus” the TRNC, not because there is any real difference in status between two very much existing states, but simply because of that UK choice. The Republic of Cyprus claims the TRNC as its own and the People’s Republic of China claims Taiwan belongs to it. So what is the difference? In reality, there is none, except in the TRNC’s case the British government chooses to see it as an occupied territory, rather than the land of the Turkish Cypriots, forgetting Greece and the Greek Cypriots overthrew the power-sharing Republic of Cyprus in 1974 and caused the island to be divided. Lord Maginnis asked the right question. Baroness Sugg’s answer proves it. Any problem in treating the TRNC differently to Taiwan lies in the heart of the Foreign Office, not here. As a Cyprus “guarantor power” the UK should be ashamed.