Nationalists on both sides are free to loathe one another while the rest of us ponder pointlessly the finer points of a federal ideal

The controversy about the description of Mehmet Harmanci as Turkish Cypriot mayor of Nicosia by the Cyprus Forum, who was driven to withdraw from its conference last week, was reminiscent of the problem of separate municipalities that spilled over and became the Cyprus problem after inter-communal fighting broke out in December 1963.

The organisers of the Cyprus Forum 2026 had invited Nicosia mayors Charalambos Prounzos and Harmanci to present its peace and democracy awards but the government of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) objected to the description of Harmanci as mayor after far-right nationalist party Elam raised his participation as an issue.

Harmanci then withdrew, as did Nicosia mayor Prounzos in honourable sympathy. Cyprus’ second largest political party, the left wing Akel, also withdrew, branding Elam’s objection hysterical.

The Cyprus Forum conference at the Landmark Hotel in Nicosia on September 28-30 was organised by Oxygen for Democracy (Oxygono), a non profit influencer organisation devoted to the free flow of ideas. It is an annual conference that brings together a diverse group of participants, national and international, including leaders, ambassadors, politicians, mayors, academics, journalists and other influencers in a conference setting for creative thinking about policy reform.

Democratic diversity is the essence of Oxygono and the Cyprus Forum, so the organisers invited Elam to participate as it is now a force in Greek Cypriot politics. They assumed Elam would not take issue about Harmanci’s participation as mayor but they were wrong. As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and so it was whenElam promptly objected to the participation of Harmanci, calling him pseudo-mayor who should be disinvited.

Their objection was roundly rejected by the organisers and the matter was closed except for the fact that the present government is in thrall to Elam and they are both very hawkish on the Cyprus problem. So, government officials leaned on the organisers to rephrase the description of Harmanci as a Turkish Cypriot leader rather than mayor as a compromise. The Cyprus Forum adopted a pragmatic approach and agreed the government’s compromise but Harmanci could not attend and keep the dignity of his office intact, and withdrew. The question now is what is the true status of the Nicosia mayor of the Turkish municipality?

The present RoC government told Cyprus Forum organisers the status of Nicosia mayor of the Turkish municipality was “not accepted by the Greek Cypriot side,” which must have been a figure of speech for ‘not acceptable to the current RoC government.”

The organisers of Cyprus Forum, mayor Prounzos, Akel and many others on the Greek Cypriot side accept the carefully crafted description: Nicosia Mayor, Turkish municipality; and they are just as much the Greek Cypriot side as the government and Elam. Neither has the status of mayor of the Turkish municipality in Nicosia been an issue since the days of mayors Lellos Demetriades and Mustafa Akinci, who got on famously last century.

The status of separate Turkish Cypriot municipalities from a Greek Cypriot perspective is informed by international law and the RoC constitution.

In international law, non recognition of breakaway states like the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)’ does not mean that the Nicosia Turkish municipality is illegal. Non-recognition of a state does not necessarily entail non-recognition of every legal institution, act or consequence produced by the de facto state if it is for the benefit of the community.

The position under Cyprus’ 1960 constitution is governed by the policy of separate Turkish Cypriot municipalities rather than its implementation, which proved impossible owing to political differences. The mandatory policy of the constitution was that separate municipalities were required to be created by the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Cyprus’ largest towns including Nicosia. So, to the extent that the policy of the 1960 constitution informs the policy of the RoC government, separate Turkish Cypriot municipalities are not unconstitutional or illegal or pseudo by dint of being separate. 

Under the constitution, the creation of separate municipalities was supposed to take place by agreement, which did not happen owing to a gap in the constitution that caused it to malfunction. The requirement to create separate municipalities required practical legislative machinery that had to be passed by separate majorities in parliament; and surprise surprise separate majorities proved impossible.

Nevertheless, in principle, the right to separate Turkish Cypriot municipalities was given directly to the inhabitants of the main towns by the constitution and it is inconsistent with the policy of the constitution to call a Turkish Cypriot municipality or its mayor illegal.

Whatever implementation problems there may have been and despite the fact that the Turkish Cypriot municipality is not under the effective control of the RoC, the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Nicosia have a constitutional right to their municipality.

And yet it fell victim to a new trend or pattern that has emerged recently that smacks of bravado and braggadocio — appomata in Cypriot Greek. Elam picks on a harmless Turkish Cypriot community event or institution which it condemns as involving illegal recognition; the RoC government then adopts Elam’s stance and the event or institution is sabotaged by the RoC acting as the recognised government with sovereignty over the whole of Cyprus to the detriment of the Turkish Cypriot community.

But all is fair on the divided island of Cyprus: the Greek nationalists of Elam and their fellow travellers in the current government pursue their nationalist ideal as vigorously as Turkish nationalists pursue their separate state ideal and it is all-out war between them bar the shooting — for the minute! They are of course free to loathe one another while the rest of us ponder pointlessly the finer points of a federal ideal.