Our View: Measures for Turkish Cypriots have not improved the climate for talks

The long-awaited unilateral measures for the Turkish Cypriots, which were finally announced by the presidency last Friday, do not appear to have had the desired effect. If President Christodoulides’ intention was to improve the climate on the eve of the arrival of the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General the plan did not work, the package of 14 measures drawing criticism from both sides and minimal praise.

The measures had been leaked to Politis newspaper some six months ago for the government to gauge Greek Cypriot reaction but were not officially made public. The president reportedly wanted their announcement to coincide with the start of a new initiative, but it is difficult to understand the reasoning, as these were primarily targeted at Turkish Cypriot individuals. There was nothing in the measures that the Turkish Cypriot leadership would welcome and become slightly more agreeable to a resumption of talks, which we assume is the objective.

Instead, talking about the measures on Friday night, Christodoulides took a swipe at the regime in the north, reminding that Turkish Cypriots were citizens of the Cyprus Republic, “a member-state of the EU, internationally recognised and not a pseudo-state”. Perhaps his intention was to pre-empt criticism from the Greek Cypriots, but this remark could not have improved the climate. The ‘prime minister’ Ulan Ustel said the package of measures was “a trap and had no meaning”.

The leader of the CTP opposition party, Tufan Erhurman, said that the granting of citizenship to Turkish Cypriot children from mixed marriages (one of the 14 measures) was “a right and not a favour”. The issue, said Erhurman, whose party still supports a federal settlement, was “the elimination of the violation of human rights and of discrimination”.

Two of the three parties in Christodoulides’ government alliance, Diko and Edek, also expressed objections to the measure that would allow the Republic to give citizenship to children of a Turkish Cypriot married to a Turkish national. Edek claimed this would be rewarding the war crime of illegal settlement, while Diko said the government should not “give Turkish Cypriots the ability to enjoy privileges of ‘both worlds,’ that is living in occupied Cyprus and having the status of Cyprus citizen”. Elam, as expected, was even more scathing about the measures.

With the measures, Christodoulides has not only antagonised the Turkish Cypriot leadership but has also alienated the parties in the government alliance, which he would want to be on side in the event of a resumption of talks. Even the Chamber of Commerce (Keve) expressed concerns about the adding of six products from the north to the list of products that could be traded as part of the Green Line agreement, seeking support measures for Greek Cypriot businesses that would be affected by the unfair competition.

The president may have thought that these measures would have improved the climate, but this has proved a miscalculation, as they seem to have had the opposite effect.