On the most remote Mediterranean island in our geography, about 100 kilometres from Syria, today marks 50 years of a war whose wounds are still intact. Cypruswhich has guarded the eastern border of the European Union since 2004, today celebrates half a century of division. On July 20, 1974the Turkish army took the island from the north to protect the Muslim inhabitants – 18% of the total population – from the military coup that the EOKA-B movement had orchestrated five days earlier so that Cyprus would become part of the Greece of the colonels as just another island.
The invasion — or, as Ankara promoted it, ‘Operation Attila’— divided the island in two: in the north, 36% of the territory fell into Turkish hands, while the Greek majority was concentrated in the southern two-thirds. This led to an exchange of populations: 200,000 Greeks living in northern cities such as Kyrenia or Famagusta fled to the south, and 60,000 Turkish Cypriots did the opposite.
In the southern half, the new military junta collapsed and the coup plotters quickly ushered in a new government willing to negotiate peace with Turkey and reunify the island. However, peace never came. In 1983, the Turkish Cypriots proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Ankara immediately recognized it. The borders were frozen, and the 1974 armistice lines were gradually assimilated as borders. Separating both parts, the United Nations established the Green Linea buffer zone that crosses the island from east to west.
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The two halves swung in two different directions: the north, recognised only by Turkey and isolated by the international community; the south, a member state of the EU. Today, the Republic of Cyprus has almost a million inhabitants, while the TRNC is home to less than 400,000 people.
But, in addition to a border, two emotions are dividing the island this Saturday: celebration in the north and regret in the south. This is confirmed by the visits of the Turkish president and the Greek prime minister. While the former, Recep Tayyip Erdoğancelebrate with the Turkish Cypriots in the north of the island, the second, Kiriacos Mitsotakiswill accompany the inhabitants of the south among air raid sirens in tribute to the deceased.
The peace process, practically stalled for three decades, suffered its biggest setback in 2004. Greek Cypriots voted in a referendum against the Annan Planwhich was pushed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, proposed a Swiss-style federal state for the Mediterranean island. Since then, both local governments and their partners in Greece and Turkey have given preference to other solutions. Both Ankara and North Nicosia have been seeking in recent years to reach a two-state plan with their Greek and Greek Cypriot counterparts. However, neither Athens nor Nicosia are willing to have an internationally recognised Turkish entity on the island.
Magnets with the silhouette of the island of Cyprus in a gift shop in Nicosia.
“Türkiye’s intransigence and its insistence on a two-state solution does not make the situation any easier. The invasion and occupation of Cyprus has nothing to do with the “protection” of our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, but with the geostrategic importance from the island to Ankara,” Christina Makridou, deputy ambassador of Cyprus in Madrid, told EL ESPAÑOL. “As Ahmet Davuto wroteğbefore becoming Prime Minister of Turkey: “We will always have to find a problem in Cyprus even if there is not a single Muslim Turk there,” he quotes.
Half a century after the pro-Greek coup and the Turkish invasion, the role of Athens and Ankara remains important in the peace talks. Last week, Mitsotakis and Erdoğan met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. The Greek prime minister then asked the Turkish president to resume peace talksalthough in the region today’s anniversary has been distancing both parties from any construction projects for weeks.
On Monday, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said that the July 15 coup “He opened the back door to the intruder, who was lurking”referring to the Turkish invasion on July 20. Ankara responded, and on Wednesday Yaşar Güler, Dendias’ Turkish counterpart, urged it to abandon its “efforts to undermine the common position “of the leaders of the two countries, which aims to promote relations between Turkey and Greece in a constructive manner,” Minister Güler posted on X.
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But Turkey and the TRNC’s willingness to seek a solution does not merit jumping through the hoops of UN resolutions either. Last week, Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar reiterated his rejection of the bicommunal federation called for by the Security Council, and He insisted on his position of “two states, two peoples and two authorities”.
The role of the UN
Since 1974, the United Nations has been acting as guarantor in the area separating the two territories. Although the international mission is responsible for bringing the two parties together in search of a solution, all attempts made in the last fifty years have come to nothing.
In view of the anniversary of the Turkish invasion on Saturday, the UN Special Envoy for Cyprus has issued new recommendations to Secretary-General António Guterres. Maria Angela Holguin Cuellarformer Foreign Minister of Colombia, reports in her report that Cyprus has been “frozen in time” since 2017, the last date on which the leaders of both communities met in the Swiss town of Crans Montana.
The initiative of Holguín Cuéllar, who was a key figure in the signing of the peace agreement between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC in 2016, could breathe hope into the peace process in Cyprus. But for this to happen, both Ankara and Athens and the two Nicosias would have to recognize the UN proposal: a Federal, bizonal and bicommunal statewhich emerged from two constituent states—one Greek and one Turkish—with a single sovereignty, one citizenship and one international personality.
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