By Ata Atun,
Member of the advisory council to the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
The US and the West may put on the table a map for the inclusion of the Greek Cypriot administration in NATO in exchange for conditions Türkiye will accept on the Cyprus problem.
One of the former Greek Cypriot leaders, Glafcos Clerides, while running for president in the 1993 elections, stated in speeches: ‘We have applied for full membership of the EU. When we are accepted as a full member, we will, with the support of the EU, kick Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots off the island and become the sole owner and sovereign of Cyprus’.
For Greek Cypriots this was a beautiful dream.
With faith in it, they followed the EU relentlessly for years.
As a result of the blackmail of Greece, which declared, ‘If Cyprus is not accepted as a member while the peripheral countries join the EU, I will veto the enlargement and you will not be able to make any country a member of the community’ – the EU accepted the Greek-Cypriot administration as a full member on 1 May 2004, deliberately violating both its own founding declaration and the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Greek Cypriot administration got nothing
And so, for years, the Greek Cypriot administration has been trying to enlist the support of the EU to corner Türkiye on the Cyprus issue, to secure concessions and the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island.
It tried, but got nothing.
Over the years, the balance of power has shifted. While the EU began to weaken, Türkiye began to grow stronger. The Greek administration of South Cyprus also fell in the eyes of the EU over time because of its leading role in drug trafficking, human trafficking and the fake state budgets it provided to the EU.
Prior to the Ukraine conflict, the Greek Cypriot administration was Russia’s Trojan horse in the EU. Nicosia would immediately notify Russia of any decision or sanctions that the EU was about to take and, in accordance with the instructions received, prevented the decision from being taken if necessary by using its veto power. Of course, Russia was also the Greek Cypriot administration’s Trojan horse in the UN Security Council. You may remember when the Greek Cypriots voted against the Annan plan in a referendum on 24 April 2004, then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that Russia would veto in the UN Security Council a proposal to ‘lift sanctions on the Turkish Cypriots’ and such a proposal was not put before the council.
This friendship was interrupted by the sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union at the outset of the Ukrainian conflict.
When years of interest-based co-operation collapsed, the Greek Cypriot administration tried to find another ‘uncle’ to rely on as it became an unwanted member of the EU and quarrelled with Russia.
Military bases in South Cyprus
The first thing the Greek-Cypriot administration did was to provide the US, France, Italy with military bases on the southern part of the island, opening air and sea ports to these countries for military use. In addition, the Greek authorities in South Cyprus made strategic agreements in case of war with Türkiye, so that these countries would be on their side in a war against Türkiye. However, after realising that the US, France and Italy had no intention of confronting Türkiye for them, the Greek Cypriots embarked on a new quest and targeted NATO.
The US invaded the Middle East after the Arab-Israeli war triggered by the Suez Crisis of 1952, expelling France and Britain, and by the end of the past 72 years has largely lost its grip on the Middle East region. First the US withdrew from Iraq. Now they will have to withdraw from Syria. When the countries with Middle Eastern oil, which they had enjoyed for years, began to withdraw from US control, to refrain from making decisions on their own and to rebel against them, the United States too began to look for alternatives.
The calculations around Cyprus
The U.S. and the EU could not get their hands on the oil and natural gas of the Eastern Mediterranean due to the presence and power of Türkiye, and now have decided to turn the Greek Cypriot administration’s desire to join NATO into a ‘win-win situation.’
Apparently, the US and the EU will lay on the table the card of including the Greek-Cypriot administration into NATO, in exchange for the terms that Türkiye will accept in the Cyprus issue, because they know that they will not be able to pressure Türkiye in this regard.
While new borders and maps are being formed in the Middle East, there also seems to be some calculations around the Mediterranean and Cyprus. Under these circumstances, it must be realized that Turkish Cyprus needs Türkiye more than ever.