Congratulations, Nikos Anastasiades, who is on “nice terms” with President Mustafa Akıncı, after chesting the finish line with 56 percent of the vote and thus protected his position. Consequently, Mr. Niko found himself a place on the list of reassigned leaders after Archbishop Makarios and Glafkos Klerides.
Our “Mistaa” Akinci probably congratulated his “chemical twin” Niko on election night. Maybe he said, “Come on Niko, let’s talk anew now.” How could Niko answer him? Throughout his campaign, he kept repeating “He is a soldier. He is a guarantee. He is local.” Now after all this, how dare he say, “Come Mistaa, let’s shake hands”. Will the Greek electorate swallow this? Would the Turkish side trust him? These are the new complications of this period.
Can you start anew with something old? If “yes”, I would say “why not?” However, I would also agree with those that say “No! You cannot!”
I believe the Federation option in Cyprus went down the drain long before July 6. In fact, Niko and Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias had the UN General Secretary Antonio Manuel de Oliveira Guterres conduct the funeral ceremony of the Federation option.
My distinguished academician friend professor Dr. Mehmet Hasgüler prepared an article before the elections that was presented only later as an evaluation in which he compared Niko to an “a bull in a china shop”. This was no exaggeration. The leftist Turkish Cypriot with his “Federation obsession” perceives both Niko and socialist Akel’s candidate Stavros Malas as a “Federation Defender”. In fact, Niko, supported by the Democratic Movement Party (DMP), which is backed by EOKA and the Communist Malas, were very different from each other, and it is for this reason that our dear leftist friends were praying for Malas, while the supporters of the Greek Church put their support behind Niko.
The supporters of the Federation solution were overlooking the sub-identities, and dreamed of unity over the supra-identity, while the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish leftists envisaged the same political approach. However, both Nikos’ DMP party and the Turkish central-right accepted the Federation option under pressure which was never digested as a must target.
For both the Greek and the Turkish Cypriot rightists, the solution is always “something else”, and the Federation was forcibly accepted as a “go-between”. Although Enosis option – the merging with Greece – looks to be dead, the Greek Cypriot rightists (and also some leftists) think the “solution” is still protecting the “Greek Identity” of the island without forsaking the Cyprus Republic idea and by patching the Cypriot Turks through some federal additions.
Now Niko has been reelected, but what if Malas was elected? The same old stories would be rolled out by a new person. The situation is more difficult now, as the old stories are being repeated by the old person as if they were new. How are we to perceive this?
This is the problem, and Ankara is very disturbed. On July 6, Akıncı stated that the Greek Cypriots did not favor a Federation. Some other new things need to be discussed and new approaches sought, including the two-state solution. If a new process is to start, Akıncı has stated that a calendar should be established beforehand. In case this process collapses (and I believe it will), the status of the Turkish Cypriots should be decided before the outset. These were the statements of Akıncı, but now he has started voicing The Federation Ballad once again. Furthermore, although Akıncı was the one who dissolved the guarantee system at Crans-Montana with the thought of an agreement in spite of Turkey’s concerns, and agreed with proposals to fully evacuate the Turkish soldiers from the island, he now is singing the same old song. On the other hand, Ankara believes the old negotiation basis has been fully destroyed and the Federation solution is completely down the drain. Consequently, the time has come to talk about a confederation or even a two-state solution.
Right now a “Quartet Coalition” has been assigned, and we hope it is not a “Surrender Government”, but one that prefers to represent the national positions and interests of the community without political revenge. As is evident, the distance and estrangement of the government of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been increasing due to the Presidency of TRNC and the Turkish Government. The provocative headline published in the Afrika newspaper (published in TRNC) about the Olive Branch operation, the disgrace in Parliament and the imprudent behavior of both the President’s office and the police on such issues, has raised the tension further.
Can the “Quartet Coalition” overcome this situation and normalize relations between the Turkish Government and the TRNC? How long can this new coalition struggle against the Turkish antagonism that is evident in some parts of the TRNC community and the Greek sympathy?
Even if the relations between Turkey and the “Quartet Coalition”, which is made up of mostly inexperienced people, while the rest have a “quarreling with Turkey” mentality, can get back to normal, how we can continue a journey towards a Federation out of respect to Niko, when even Niko supports it only reluctantly?
