A tale of two islands: İmralı and Cyprus
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The government’s decision to end the isolation of a convicted terrorist on the island of İmralı was correct. It was also an example of the way relations with institutions of the European Union, in this case the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, or ICT, should work. What the accumulation of accords Turkey has signed as part of the accession process add up to is the “sharing” of sovereignty
This is the core concept behind Europe’s notion of “soft power.” Turkey has agreed to certain monitoring and judgment from the larger European community. In this case the “community” decided the psychological isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan was inhumane. Turkey bowed to the wishes of the community.
Now it is time the same community acts consistently and confronts the psychological isolation imposed on the residents of another island. These are the 200,000 Turkish citizens of Cyprus, effectively imprisoned on their patch of the island by the fecklessness and ineptitude of European institutions. Just a few days ago, yet another “report card” on Turkey’s EU progress was issued in Brussels; the commissioner for public relations, Olie Rehn, used the occasion to demand Turkey be more “helpful” in resolving the nearly four decades of division on the island. We share Mr. Rehn’s frustration, but not much more. Let us return to 2004. In the run up to Cyprus’s own accession to the EU, the community, along with the United Nations, drafted a complex plan to unify the island. It was a fair plan. It was put to a referendum. The expectation, of course, was that the “bad guy” Turks would wreck the pact while the “good guy” Greeks would abide by it.
With Turkish reticence thus codified through the referendum, the Greek administration could proceed to join the EU as the fully recognized authority for the entire island. Except that the players deviated from the script. The Greeks rejected the EU’s plan; the Turks overwhelmingly endorsed it. But the machinery of EU integration was already moving, and lo and behold the “Republic of Cyprus” entered the EU a few days later with its crime a fait accompli.
To add insult to injury, the new EU member even got seats in the European Parliament set aside for the Turkish population. Where is the “democracy” in that? To be fair, Rehn’s predecesssor, Guenther Verheugan, acknowleged as much at the time, even decrying the violation of EU rules by the Greek Administration in its banning him for explaining the plan in any public fora. But that is now ancient history. In the present, there is much the EU and assorted institutions, including the ICT, can do to correct the injustice visited upon the Turkish citizens of Cyprus. What is fair for one island is fair for another.