The Jerusalem Post

‘Enosis’ stalls Cyprus reunificat­ion talks

Sides argue over 1950 vote calling on island nation to be united with Greece

- • By TUVAN GUMRUKCU and MICHELE KAMBAS

ANKARA/ATHENS (Reuters) – Cyprus reunificat­ion talks were in disarray on Wednesday after reports the Turkish Cypriot side would not join this week’s meeting, in an escalating row that opened old wounds over past Greek Cypriot ambitions to unite with Greece.

Talks between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiad­es and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were abruptly interrupte­d last week over a decision taken by Greek Cypriot lawmakers to honor the 1950 enosis (union) referendum seeking union with Greece.

Enosis, as a notion, was abandoned by Greek Cypriots decades ago, but the decision to commemorat­e the date in schools touched a raw nerve with Turkish Cypriots, who say that ambition was the source of division.

Akinci and Anastasiad­es, engaged in peace talks for almost two years, were scheduled to meet once a week, with the next meeting planned for Thursday. But Akinci will not now be attending, Greek Cypriot officials and Turkey’s NTV channel said.

Anastasiad­es, who is president of Cyprus’s internatio­nally recognized government, expressed regret at the decision. “I am ready to continue the dialogue at any time,” he wrote on Twitter.

There was no immediate response from the Turkish Cypriot side, which had been demanding the parliament vote be rescinded, saying it displayed gross insensitiv­ity to concerns of their community.

Anastasiad­es, who runs an executive government, has distanced himself from parliament, conceding the vote was ill-timed, wrong and meaningles­s. But he has also said the Turkish Cypriot side overreacte­d.

Turkish Cypriots maintain the drive for union with Greece was a key source of tension which spilled over into fighting, driving the wedge which still exists between the two communitie­s today.

The two sides had been making progress in talks to reunite Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation, but the plebiscite row underscore­d how fragile any progress is.

The unofficial referendum, in which only Greek Cypriots voted and was carried by more than 95% in favor, presaged by more than 20 years the violent division of the island between ethnic Greeks and Turks. It was not recognized by Britain, which was Cyprus’s colonial ruler at the time.

Cyprus was then split by the 1974 Turkish invasion triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup by supporters of union with Greece.

The February 9 motion by parliament was submitted by a small Greek Cypriot party with ties to Greece’s Golden Dawn far-right party.

Although the left-wing main opposition party voted against it, an abstention by Anastasiad­es’s Conservati­ve Party meant it got through, with votes from parties that have expressed misgivings about progress in talks.

 ?? (Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters) ?? A MAN SITS on a bench next to a barricade outside the UN buffer zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, yesterday.
(Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters) A MAN SITS on a bench next to a barricade outside the UN buffer zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, yesterday.

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