The Reversible Republic

By Spencer Davidson

Minority Turks set up a separate state, but hint at compromise

"Expressing the legitimate and irrepressible will of the Turkish Cypriot people . . . we hereby declare before the world and history the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as an independent state."

His audience, as Turkish Cypriot Leader Rauf Denktash shrewdly surmised, was far larger than the modest throng that gathered in Nicosia last week to cheer his proclamation of a new Turkish Cypriot republic on the divided Mediterranean island. It was a ringing declaration, but as soon as it was made public, Turkish Cypriot officials added an odd qualifier. The decision, they said, was not irreversible: what Denktash really had in mind was to call the world's attention to Turkish Cypriot demands, frustrated so far, for a federated Cyprus. Under the Denktash formula, equal political weight would be given to the island's squabbling communities of 500,000 ethnic Greeks and 120,000 ethnic Turks.

Greek Cypriots across the "green line" that separates the two communities heard Denktash's lofty words, but were not impressed by the qualifier. An infuriated President Spyros Kyprianou demanded that the action "be condemned by everybody throughout the world." In Athens, the government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was equally outraged at what it perceived to be another threat to Cyprus' Greeks. In Ankara, where a caretaker government is running the country until the installation of newly elected Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, officials who normally support Denktash insisted that they were as stunned as everyone else.

Nor were they the only ones troubled by the most serious crisis the island has faced since the 1974 invasion by Turkish troops. Because Denktash's action exacerbated already crackling tensions between Greece and Turkey, two NATO allies, it threatened further disruption on the alliance's southern flank at the very moment that NATO faces the volatile issue of deploying U.S. nuclear missiles in Western Europe. Groused the left-leaning Paris daily Liberation: "The storm surrounding the Euromissiles wasn't enough. Cyprus had to be thrown in as well."

The only nation that recognized the new republic in the course of the week was, not surprisingly, Turkey. But even the Turks had reservations. "Wouldn't it have been better," asked Ozal after being informed of Denktash's proclamation by President Kenan Evren, "to do that after first strengthening Turkish Cyprus economically?"

Elsewhere there was mostly hostility. French President Franc,ois Mitterrand's government denounced the Denktash decision "without reservation." Declared Mitterrand coldly: "I don't think that the great powers want to involve themselves in this issue and thereby place an additional burden on those matters already in dispute." British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher suggested that, as the guarantors of Cyprus' independence under the 1960 treaty, Britain, Greece and Turkey discuss the problem. Greece, however, objected to face-to-face talks with Ankara, forcing Thatcher to seek a compromise formula for negotiations. The issue ultimately went before the U.N. Security Council, which voted to ask the Turkish Cypriots to withdraw their unilateral declaration of independence.

Washington was as taken aback as other governments. Finding itself in a no-win situation vis-`a-vis two key allies, the U.S. responded with an unusually blunt statement that not only "condemned" the idea of a Turkish Cypriot republic but called on other nations to refuse to recognize it. Only three days before, Congress had passed a $1 billion aid bill for Turkey.

Denktash admitted that he had timed his announcement to take advantage of the interregnum in Ankara before Ozal is installed. "I caught them by surprise," he explained. "They would not have had me do this had they known in time." But his move was not taken solely with Ankara in mind. Denktash also sought to gain international attention, impatient as he is over the stalemate in negotiations with the Greeks. Moreover, some observers insist, he has personal ambitions. "He wouldn't be happy being the governor of a Turkish province [of a federal Cypriot republic]," said a Western diplomat last week.

Through years of off-and-on talks between the two communities, the Turkish Cypriots have insisted that the island's intercommunal problem cannot be solved on an international basis, but must be settled at home--and on the basis of federation. Neither side has been willing to compromise. Hostilities between the two communities go back for generations; outright separation has been in effect since 1974 when right-wing Greek Cypriots favoring enosis (union) with Greece took power in Nicosia in a coup, thus triggering the Turkish invasion. Since then, the Turkish-dominated part of the island has managed to survive only with economic help from Ankara, which currently provides half the annual budget of $120 million along with millions more in development funds.

The Greek Cypriots, for their part, run a robust enough economy. But they are frustrated politically and demand not only the withdrawal of the 20,000 Turkish "occupation" troops but also the return of Greek Cypriots to areas they were forced to abandon after 1974. They agree in principle to a federated state but are vague about the kind of equality Denktash demands for his outnumbered minority. Turkish Cypriot leaders insisted last week that the federation option remains open despite the proclamation of the republic; indeed, they explained, the creation of a Turkish Cypriot state would provide the weight necessary for successful negotiations with the Greek community. "We are looking for a bizonal, bicommunal federal republic," said Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Kenan Atakol. "In our declaration we said that we extended a peaceful hand to the Greek Cypriots. If they refuse to negotiate with us, the declaration will show the whole world that we believe we have as much right to self-determination as the Greek Cypriots have."

--By Spencer Davidson.

Reported by Barry Kalb/Nicosia and Wilton Wynn/Rome

With reporting by Barry Kalb/Nicosia, Wilton Wynn/Rome This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.