I refer to an article published in the Cyprus Mail on January 10 on the views of the former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and would like to point out, that there will probably be no quick solution to the problem, nor can there be.
Being an Austrian who has lived in Cyprus more than six years I am convinced that a quick solution is impossible due to the fact that already too much time has passed since the Turkish invasion in 1974 and several generations of Greek- and Turkish-speaking Cypriots have grown up in completely separate cultural environments. Added to this is the massive immigration of mainland Turks over the past 30 years, who now probably make up most of the population living in the north. If one wants to think of any solution at all that envisages a unified state of Cyprus as the ultimate goal, this can only be done in small steps. Three preparatory measures are particularly important:
1) Immediate introduction of a uniform education plan in both the occupied and the free part of Cyprus, which provides for intensive language teaching of the Turkish language in the south and the Greek language in the north with the aim of producing a fully bilingual young population within 15 years.
2) Immediate stopping of further immigration of mainland Turks to northern Cyprus.
3) A rapid creation of a Cyprus confederation consisting of two formally independent constituent states with the binding obligation to hold a joint referendum on the formation of a Federal State of Cyprus with a single head of state and joint key ministries, while retaining BBF structures, no later than 15 years after the formation of the proposed confederation.
The confederation as a first step within a unification process should gradually work more closely together and prepare for the formation of federal state structures and bodies, including a binding demarcation of borders between the territories of the two ethnic groups. Varosha and Morphou should be returned to the former Greek Cypriot inhabitants and their descendants in several phases. The period of 15 years until the proposed referendum seems necessary for the two ethnic groups to grow together in confidence on the basis of bilingualism, mutual respect, religious tolerance and overall understanding. Likewise a gradual but eventual complete withdrawal of Turkish occupation forces seems to be obligatory while several hundred troops from various EU countries could act as a kind of observation force on the island for a certain period of time.
My proposal is not a pipe dream, but the result of many years of own observations and resulting conclusions.
Martin Kraemer, Strovolos
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