Downer swaps Canberra for Cyprus

With the support of the Labor Government, former Liberal foreign minister Alexander Downer is now likely to become the UN Special Envoy for Cyprus. Although not yet officially announced by the UN itself, Downer made the announcement himself from London where he is involved in private discussions about his future. The 56 year old South Australian said Australia has a humanitarian interest in a resolution to the Cyprus dispute because of its own large community of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. "I will be working toward helping the Cyprus saga,” he said. "I will be working toward helping the Cyprus saga, working as an envoy to try and resolve that long standing issue." “Working as an envoy to try and resolve that long standing issue."

The news came as Downer officially announced his retirement from federal politics today. The news brings an end to speculation of what role he might play in a future Liberal leadership contest. His last day in Canberra will be 14 July and there will follow a by-election in the Liberal blue ribbon seat of Mayo. Apart from the Cyprus role, Downer plans to work in an Adelaide consulting firm and also take up a part-time position in a South Australian university. Downer was Australia’s longest-serving foreign minister, lasting 11 years in the job throughout the entire period of the Howard Government.

Bernard Keane in Crikey was scathing about Downer’s legacy. Keane called him Australia’s “worst foreign minister of recent decades” who was the White House’s lapdog for most of his 11 year stint in the job (coinciding with seven years of the Bush administration). Keane castigates Downer’s role in the decision to go to war with Iraq, his intellectual dishonesty in the AWB scandal, and the damage he caused to the relationship with Papua New Guinea.

But Downer is not without his supporters. Writing today in the Wall Street Journal (the cross-benefits of Murdoch’s ownership becoming increasingly apparent), Australian right-wing journalist Janet Albrechtsen described Downer as a “stalwart and articulate defender of the legitimate right of Australians to determine their national sovereignty”. She claims that Downer’s determination to stay the course in Iraq has won Australia influence in Washington which will benefit Kevin Rudd while he (Downer) heads off to become Ban Ki Moon’s “fix-it man in the Mediterranean”.

Downer will have a difficult act to follow in current Cyprus special envoy, the Ethiopian-born Taye-Brook Zerihoun. Zerihoun is an experienced diplomat who formerly served as a UN envoy in Sudan. He spent his last few days in office in the island nation talking to both the Cypriot Greek leader Dimitris Christofias, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Mehmet Ali Talat. He told a Medal Parade of the UN peacekeeping mission that there's been marked progress in the peace process in the last few months, a development which he adds, has engendered much optimism and goodwill in Cyprus and around the world.

One of Zerihoun’s last acts was to bring Christofias and Ali Talat together again on Tuesday for further talks on reunification. The leaders agreed in principle on the issues of single sovereignty and citizenship. Citizenship has been a key concern for Greek Cypriots particularly as they try to halt the growing number of naturalised mainland Turks who have moved to the island since Turkey’s 1974 invasion. The Turkish Cypriots, meanwhile, want the federation of the two communities foreseen in the UN-brokered peace talks to be an entirely new creation. This is opposed by the Greeks who want their government (recognised across the world except by Ankara) to continue to be recognised.

While these basic issues will take some time to resolve, Zerihoun has brokered other initiatives in recent months in an attempt to make life easier for both sides. They include educational programmes on cultural heritage; steps on road safety; easing the movement of ambulances between the two sides; the establishment of a Cyprus Joint Committee on Health; cooperation for an island-wide assessment of all major waste streams; and agreement on environmental education. Zerihoun has been backed up by the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) which has been on the island since 1964 charged with preventing communal violence.

It was Downer himself who announced Australia’s last envoy for Cyprus. He appointed John Spender to the role in 1998. Back then, Downer was worried by the continuing deadlock over efforts to bring the Greek and Turkish communities together. “Thirty-five years since the outbreak of intercommunal fighting and 24 years since the Turkish invasion of 1974, the problem of Cyprus remains unresolved, “ he said “A settlement is long overdue.” Now Downer will have a direct opportunity to make that happen.

Cyprus talks resume between Greek and Turkish communities

The leaders of Cyprus’s divided communities met yesterday for the first time in over 12 months in the UN buffer zone in the capital Nicosia. Tassos Papadopoulos, Greek Cypriot president, and Mehmet Ali Talat, Turkish Cypriot leader, held a three-hour meeting facilitated by a UN resident representative, Michael Moeller. Ahead of a Greek Cypriot election, the talks did not make great strides. However Moeller said the two leaders "agreed on the need for the earliest start for the process" and "discussed other issues leading to a comprehensive settlement." Negotiations have been stalled since Papadopoulos rejected a UN power-sharing plan in 2004 which the Turkish Cypriots accepted.

The latest talks were welcomed by British foreign minister David Miliband who currently visiting Turkey. He pledged London’s support for a lasting settlement that would eventually lead to Turkey’s accession to the EU. “We very much hope that those talks will be entered into with real openness and determination on both sides,” he said.

At the heart of Cyprus’s problem is the mistrust and political rivalry between the island’s two ethnic communities. 80 percent of Cypriots are Greek Orthodox while the remainder are Turkish Muslims. Both sides claims to the island are rooted in history. Cyprus has been part of the Hellenic world since about 1000 BC and part of the Ottoman Empire since 1571. Ironically the Ottomans restored the Greek Orthodox religion which had been suppressed by the previous rulers, the Venetians.

In 1878, the Ottomans reached a secret agreement with Britain called the “Cyprus Convention” to transfer power of the island to the British. In exchange the British agreed to pay an annual lease and supported the Ottomans during the Congress of Berlin which redistributed Bulgarian territories back to the Turks. In the face of public opposition, the British reneged on the tribute and the money was diverted to pay off Crimean war loans instead.

After Turkey’s defeat in World War I, Cyprus became a crown colony. Britain formally annexed the island in 1925. Rebels began a campaign to end British control. However unlike Ireland and India, the Cypriots did not by themselves constitute a nation seeking independence. Instead, they saw themselves as an unfree part of a nation which possessed its own state. Consequently, for the Greek Cypriots freedom was synonymous with the goal of “enosis” - union with Greece.

It was gradually recognised, however, that enosis was politically unfeasible due to the presence and increasing assertiveness of the island’s Turkish community (about 18 per cent of the overall population). Instead, Britain signed the Zurich-London Treaty which declared the independent Republic of Cyprus in 1960. After pressure from the Turkish minority, the 1960 constitution went to great length to grant both groups cultural autonomy and institutional power sharing within a common state. At the time of independence Greeks and Turks intermixed in towns and villages across the island; there was no territorial base to divide the country into Greek and Turkish zones.

The Turks had a guaranteed 15 out of the 50 seats in parliament, three out of ten ministers and extensive powers of veto. In 1963 a frustrated Greek Cypriot President Makarios proposed amendments to the constitution to change guarantees on the number of Turks in the military and the civil service and remove the Turkish veto power. The changes were strongly resisted by Turkish Cypriots became the catalyst for a decade long conflict between Greek and Turkish elements separated by a UN peacekeeping force.

In 1974 the rightwing Greek junta arranged for the overthrow of Makarios and replaced him with a hardline Greek Cypriot government led by Nicos Sampson. Turkey feared this was a precursor to a Greek takeover and unilaterally announced a “peace keeping operation” to restore the constitutional order. They invaded the island and established control over the north. The invasion caused Greeks to flee south and Turks in the south to flee north fearing retribution. This ethnic cleansing resulted in a new entity called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) which occupied 40 per cent of the island.

The international community condemned the invasion but the Turks were allowed to keep control. The TRNC has not been recognised by any country except Turkey which resettled peasants from Anatolia on the island to shore up its hold. The UN came in to police an 180km long middle ground known as the “Green Line” as positions hardened on both sides. The Green Line was up to 20kms wide and divided the capital, Nicosia, in two.

The (southern) republic of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 after a 12 year waiting period. At the time, the European Council confirmed its strong preference for EU accession by a united Cyprus and insisted Greek and Turkish Cypriots to continue to negotiate with the objective of concluding a comprehensive settlement. However Cyprus was accepted into the union even though this clause was never realised. Talks in 2004 and again in 2006 failed to achieve the breakthrough.

Turkey also wants to join the EU by 2012 but Greece and Cyprus both insist it solve the Cypriot question before their application will be granted. However Turkey may turn this position to their benefit by agreeing to forego the TRNC in order to overcome Western apprehension of an Islamic country in the European alliance. In July 2005, Turkey included Cyprus in an expanded customs union with new EU countries offering preferential trading terms.

Issues to be resolved include the property rights of those made refugees by the 1974 invasion and the rights of minorities. The last time the two sides met was in July 2006, the two sides agreed to set up working parties to tackle issues affecting all Cypriots. They agreed on a twin-track process of technical and political talks. But none of the proposed groups has ever met.

The EU hope to implement a three part plan: Turkey to open its ports to Greek Cypriot shipping; Famagusta to be handed over from TRNC to the EU; and Varosha, the resort area of Famagusta, a no man's land since the invasion, would be handed over to the UN to allow Greeks to return. While these goals remain elusive, at least the sides are talking again. Tim Potier, assistant professor on international law and human rights at Cyprus's Intercollege, said the consequences of failure will only impact on the two communities and the island. "It's better for expectations to be lowered and the front door left open for further discussions," he said.