Straw webinar,
FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY JACK STRAW SAYS DURING AN ONLINE DEBATE THERE IS NO LEGAL OBSTACLE TO COMMENCING UK AND NORTH CYPRUS DIRECT FLIGHTS
FORMER British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that a settlement in Cyprus needs to be based on a two-state model and that he sees no legal obstacle to commencing direct flights between the UK and North Cyprus.
He made the remarks during an online debate on Wednesday evening titled “Road to a Twostate Solution in Cyprus with British Foreign Policy”.
The live broadcast, the third in a series of webinars on the Cyprus issue, was organised by the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA) UK and the British Turkish Cypriot Association (BTCA), in collaboration with the Circle Foundation.
Hosted by former UK government minister Brooks Newmark, the panel was made up of Jack Straw; Ergün Olgun, President Ersin Tatar’s special representative; Lord Northbrook, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the TRNC; Sir David Amess, Member of Parliament for Southend West; and Prof Dr Hasan Ünal, professor of political science and international relations at Maltepe University, İstanbul.
Mr Straw explained why he now supported the Turkish Cypriot cause, which he did not during his tenure as Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006.
“My view shifted as a result of my experience as Foreign Secretary,” he said. “I became more and more angry . . . and expressed that as a foreign minister with the behaviour of [late Greek Cypriot leader Tassos] Papadopolous and his foreign minister.
“When I subsequently went to Cyprus, to both North and South . . . I was warmly received in the North . . .but Papadopolous refused to see me, a dreadful man in my view.
“[Former German Foreign Minister] Joschka Fischer and I were instrumental in getting things through the [EU] Foreign Affairs Council in April 2004 – about opening things up to the North because of the behaviour of the Greek Cypriots.
“The tragedy is that it was not followed through. It’s all there about what we should have been doing for the North and I was instrumental with Joschka in gaining that agreement.
“I then moved onto doing domestic jobs in the British Government [but] as soon as I was free to take a different view I did so. I was vocal about this between 2010 to 2015, in my last years in the House of Commons, as I have been since.”
Answering a question by the Association of Turkish Cypriots Abroad coordinator Hatice Salih Kerimgil about what the UK can do following Brexit in terms of ending the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, Mr Straw said: “A good deal in my view. I got very close to opening up direct flights to the North. Foreign Office lawyers were piling me in with all sorts of treaty obligations and all the rest of it.
“We could even have done at that stage. It would not have broken any European Union obligations. We could certainly open up direct flights. It would be very popular with all the Brits who go and have their holidays in Northern Cyprus.
“There would be mutterings from the EU, but in the end the EU is a paper tiger. . . Now there is an opportunity here [for direct flights]. Now is the moment. Getting direct flights is pretty critical. It is about normalisation.”
On statehood, Mr Straw said: “It is the Greek Cypriots who have been more successful in propagating their view. . . When I was a backbencher . . . stuff came out of the woodwork, obscure messages.
“I say obscure, because I have been there for 30 years in Parliament. [MPs] had been persuaded in favour of Greek Cyprus.
“The TRNC is not flushed with money but Turkey has a lot of resources. The work has got to be done. Greek Cypriots have skilful PR agencies. . .
“[British MPs] elected in 2019 don’t have a clue about 1960. Many won’t have been born in 1974 when the Greek fascist colonels did a coup d’état on the island of Cyprus and [MPs] won’t know that Turkish troops came to the rescue of Turkish Cypriots who were going to be massacred.
“I don’t think the British government will, out of the blue, say that ‘we are going to recognise the TRNC’. It’s about getting other countries on board.
“But what the British Government can and should do is to start acting like the TRNC is recognised, picking up the Taiwanese
example and . . . introducing direct flights. . . There [are] people within the UK of Turkish Cypriot heritage, in different political parties. . .[They should] get involved in the major political parties, and then use that . . . [to] make a big difference.”
ADVICE TO DOMINIC RAAB
Asked what his advice on Cyprus would be to current UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Mr Straw said: “The first advice I can say is to offer him the analysis. . . that the previous desired solution for a bizonal bicommunal federal single unitary state, which is essentially what was in the 1960 Constitution, can’t work.
“The Turkish Cypriots have tried to secure an agreement around that, most famously in Burgenstock [Switzerland] and in the [Annan Plan] referendum that followed [in 2004], but increasingly the Greek Cypriots do not have any interest in it.
“I accept what Ergün Olgun has said, that there is a Hellenistic obsession that Cyprus should be formally part of Greece. So they see any sharing of power or territory as a loss of their sense for Greece.
“But the first thing to do is to get established in the minds of British politicians and the British Foreign Secretary, that if they want a solution, the solution has to be a two-state solution.
“The British Government has accepted this in many other places in the world including a multi-state solution in the Balkans. It [Yugolsavia] was a single state when I came into the House of Commons. . . it isn’t now. It is a sensible thing to do so far as the Middle East is concerned. We are all signed up to a two-state solution [there]. . . If you have a two-state solution, it is much easier for these two communities to live normally with each other.
“Just because there would be a technical border it does not mean there needs to be armed guards there, anymore than how it is outside [the UK and] across the EU.
“I also seek to persuade Dominic Raab and the British Government, and British members of Parliament on both sides, that we ought to be working towards a two-state solution.
“Britain has formally got a significant role because we are one of the treaty signatories for Cyprus’s independence. We need to use that influence more.
“When I started as Foreign Secretary I did not have these views. These views were borne out of seeing how the Greek Cypriots behaved.
“It would be wise for the British Foreign Secretary to keep his tinder dry.”
Mr Straw added that “any sensible British Government” should “try and get the US on side” and “forget about the EU”.
“It [the EU] doesn’t operate on foreign policy except in very limited spheres,” he said. “The US is in a different position. It needs Turkey more than it needs Greece for so many reasons. Greece . . . [has] far fewer people in it and is far less influential.”
ERGÜN OLGUN
Mr Olgun, asked for his thoughts on what the outcome of next month’s talks in Geneva will be, said: “The key reason for the failure of the bizonal, bicommunal federation settlement model for Cyprus is the Greek Cypriot obsession that Cyprus is Greek, that Cyprus is Hellenic.
“This naturally nullifies any hope and possibility of a federal settlement in Cyprus because it is the direct opposite to having any power sharing. If you want to dominate an island, that is the exact opposite of federalism.
“This is the reason why President Ersin Tatar has chosen to go forward for a two-state solution, naturally open for cooperation with the Greek Cypriots. . . Turkish Cypriots do not want to be on a permanent basis in a [confrontational] relationship with the Greek Cypriots.
“The reason for the [maintenance] of the unacceptable statusquo is [that] many of the countries are happy at the status-quo.
“Naturally, the happiest group is the EU. What reason can we think of for the EU to want to support a two-state settlement in Cyprus?
“There is the principle of solidarity within the EU. The EU will be the last in the world to support a two-state solution.”
Mr Olgun said he believes a two-state solution will “come about by default” and not as a result of any negotiation.
“I don’t think it [a two-state solution] is going to come from any external source unless they are very much hurt with what’s happening in Cyprus or the region,” he continued.
“There are signals that this may be happening. For example on the hydrocarbons issue, we had difficulties, in the eastern Mediterranean.
“Even the Nato alliance has been challenged because of the conflict between Greece and Turkey regarding the hydrocarbons.
“These could be the reasons why there may be interest, because [of] instability in the eastern Mediterranean, to try to facilitate some kind of settlement . . . on a two-state basis, a cooperative relationship, because Turkish Cypriots do not feel politically safe in the hands of the Greek Cypriots with their overarching vision to dominate the island.”
Referring to next month’s Geneva summit, Mr Olgun added: “The purpose of this summit, in the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, is to determine whether common ground exists for the parties to negotiate a solution to the Cyprus problem within a foreseeable future.”
He cautioned, however, that both sides’ positions are diametrically opposed, explaining that “the Greek Cypriot vision is that the Turkish Cypriots can be a protected minority in the usurped Republic of Cyprus” which would not be acceptable to the Turkish Cypriot side.
Mr Olgun added that failure to find common ground at Geneva in April could lead to another meeting a month later, and that this is the most likely outcome.
He said the other possible outcomes of the Geneva talks are a
declaration of failure by the UN or the sides finding common ground.
A written “closing statement” to the debate read out by Mr Newmark on behalf of the webinar organising team of Çetin Ramadan, Leyla Kemal, Sonya Karafistan, Enes Güzel, Japha Huse and Rikki Williams, said: “We stress the need for political, economic and social parity and a level playing field for peace and stability in Cyprus to succeed.
“Both the EU and the international community have failed to secure this, despite the fact that the two sides are recognised as political equals and their promises that the unjustified restrictions on Turkish North Cyprus will be lifted.
“An alternative Plan B or Two State Solution has to be tabled as a serious option otherwise the Greek Cypriots will continue to take advantage of the present situation.”
A press release from the organisers added that the previous two webinars attracted audiences of over 200,000 and that they had been broadcast online and on terrestrial TV channels BRT and Kanal T in the TRNC.