A clear message to EroÄŸlu

Ever since the 1960 partnership republic collapsed in December 1963 and the Turkish Cypriot partners in the bi-communal Cyprus Republic were kicked out of the joint administration and the Cyprus Republic was converted into a solely Greek Cypriot administered state, Turkish Cypriots have been living on the support from Turkey. Even after the 1983 proclamation of independence, which is not internationally recognized, the Turkish Cypriot state could not become self sufficient. It could also be argued that Ankara never wanted to allow the development of a self sufficient economy in northern Cyprus due to its concern of losing its leverage on the Turkish Cypriot administration. But, in reality, because of the high walls of international political, economic and even cultural isolation the Turkish Cypriot people have been subjected to, even if Ankara wanted them to, it would be very difficult to develop a self sufficient economy in northern Cyprus without seriously hurting Turkey’s European Union membership aspirations and other major foreign policy objectives.  Â

Particularly since the AKP government came to power in Turkey in 2003 and introduced a strong "pro-settlement" resolve, the focus of Ankara on northern Cyprus shifted from improving the well-being of the Turkish Cypriot people to supporting pro-settlement elements among the Turkish Cypriot people.

In 2007 a new process was launched though there was no change in attitudes in southern Cyprus. The election of Demetris Christofias as Greek Cypriot leader was a kiss if life to the stillborn process. Still, with false hopes of "settlement by this yearend" 2008 passed. With only a few months left to the end of 2009, now same melancholic melody is played by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who despite the slow pace of the talks and the apparent continued intransigence of Christofias to establish a new partnership state on the basis of political equality of the two founding states, apparently still believes that there could be a settlement and a referendum on the settlement plan by the April 2010 end of his presidency.

It takes two to tango
It was odd to see last April, when Turkish Cypriots voted Talat’s socialists out of office and brought back the nationalists of Dr. Derviş Eroğlu. That both Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reluctantly celebrated Eroğlu’s victory but stressed firmly their commitment to support President Talat and the settlement talks and underlined that they expected the new government support the process as well, as if Eroğlu was against a settlement. Naturally, every political party might have a different settlement perception but by and large everyone in northern Cyprus concedes that the status quo is not sustainable. Yet, is it not obvious that for any deal on Cyprus there has to be a pro-settlement will of the Greek Cypriot side as well? As is said, it takes two to tango.

For the past two days EroÄŸlu has been in Ankara for his first-ever official trip since coming to power again. Obviously, he demanded Ankara increase its financial assistance to northern Cyprus. But, he received here a very strong message that his administration should not only be an obstacle to the current talks-process but indeed should as well be very supportive of the efforts of President Talat. For increased assistance, on the other hand, he was told that Ankara would be willing to extend every possible support provided he was ready to launch a comprehensive austerity package and a structural reform process in the Turkish Cypriot state. "No more fish, we will teach you how to fish" he was apparently told.

But, does Ankara really want Turkish Cypriots to learn how to fish?