Written evidence submitted by Brendan
O'Malley
RE: YOUR CONSIDERATION OF POLICY ON THE CYPRUS
PROBLEM IN THE WAKE OF THE REFERENDUMS ON THE ANNAN PLAN
By way of introduction: I am international editor
of The Times Educational Supplement; co-author with Ian Craig
of The Cyprus Conspiracy: America, Espionage and the Turkish invasion
(IB Tauris, 1999), which was shortlisted for the 1999 Orwell prize
for political writing and was a Guardian book of the year; a member
of the non-partisan peace group, Tracemed, and a committee member
of Friends of Cyprus; a member of the research cluster on Eastern
Mediterranean and Eurasian studies at Kingston University, and
have given numerous lectures at international conferences on the
Cyprus problem. I have regularly met with leading Greek-Cypriot
and Turkish-Cypriot political figures, education experts and peace
campaigners.
I would like to set out why the British government
needs to change tack on its public stance since the referendums
on the Annan plan and support constructive proposals for breaking
the current logjam, some of which I shall set out below. I would
welcome the opportunity to discuss these proposals further with
the committee.
BREAKING THE
LOGJAM
1. In the aftermath of the referendum the
international community accused Greek Cypriots of negotiating
in bad faith and voting against a solution, and said the prospects
of peace had been put back for a considerable time. Representatives
of the British Foreign Office said the Greek Cypriots should be
punished for voting the wrong way. These berations were both inaccurate
and profoundly unhelpful.
2. Greek-Cypriot opposition to certain parts
of the Annan proposals was widespread and well-known long before
the arbitration process at the end of the Annan negotiations and
the UK government could have exerted more influence to ensure
that they were addressed in a way that maximized the chances of
a Yes vote in the referendums in both parts of Cyprus. By contrast
the criticism of the popular vote in the south and the assertion
that no more will be done for a very long time sends a worrying
signal that the UK government believes Turkey has done enough
for the time-being to prevent its continuing occupation of northern
Cyprus becoming an obstacle to achieving a date for the opening
of accession talks with the EU. In fact there is much more that
Turkey can do to increase confidence over time in its commitment
to implementing the plan and the UK should play its part in persuading
the Turkish government to face that challenge.
3. The international community has so far
failed to acknowledge that the overwhelming Greek-Cypriot vote
against the Annan plan reflected deep-seated concerns that must
be addressed if a settlement is to be agreed and prove lasting.
Those concerns were compounded by the unnecessarily short time
allowed for the referendum campaigns or even for the publication
of details of the final Annan plan before the vote. Those concerns
included legitimate fears that implementation of the whole plan
would not be guaranteed and that even if implemented it would
not be able to function. They also included a strong psychological
factor which would need to be addressed to win over the electorate
in any second vote among Greek Cypriots: that the plan reinforces
Turkey's right to intervene in Cyprus, raising fears Turkish forces
might be used to repeat the current occupation at some point in
the future.
4. If a drift towards partition is to be
avoided, a policy of inertia must be replaced by urgent action
to build on the momentum created by the two very positive outcomes
of the Annan process, namely Turkey's agreement to withdraw all
but a token number of troops from Cyprus and support the creation
of a United Cyprus Republic, and the democratic endorsement of
this policy by the majority of Turkish Cypriots. If no action
is taken, the danger is that Turkish Cypriot support will fall
away making agreement still more difficult to achieve. It is essential,
however, that momentum is gained by creating pathways to consensus
on Cyprus rather than by political steps that may inadvertently
or otherwise entrench separation.
5. The British government should therefore
encourage the exploration of alternative proposals to guarantee
the implementation of the proposed Annan Plan and the security
of all people in a United Cyprus Republic.
6. It should also consider lending encouragement
and support to the development of island-wide initiatives to foster
co-operation and trust between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots
and generate a consensus on how the Annan proposals can be modified
in the interests of all who live on the island.
7. I would like to make two suggestions
as to how this co-operation could be developed. Both of them would
help to create the conditions in which Greek-Cypriot demands on
functionality, implementation, security and European norms and
values would be understood by all who live on the island, so that
an agreement acceptable to everyone can be reached without losing
sight of fundamental Turkish Cypriot concerns over political equality
and security.
EDUCATION PROPOSAL
8. The first suggestion comprises a cross-community
initiative to improve education in ways that will prepare future
generations for life in the increasingly multi-ethnic, interconnected
world of the EU and enhance the prospects of lasting peace in
the proposed United Cyprus Republic. It can borrow from successful
ideas implemented in Northern Ireland and could be encouraged
by the facilitation of joint study visits to the province by influential
Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot education officials, teacher
trainers, teacher unions leaders to see how they work in the classroom:
— Revamp history teaching methods and
textbooks to offer inquiry-based learning methods and multiple
perspectives that will enable pupils to act as mini-historians,
weighing up the relative objectivity of evidence, tackling inflammatory
texts and seeking to understand the causes of the emotions behind
them, and drawing their own conclusions. These methods help develop
skills of judgment and analysis which are increasingly important
in an age where children are bombarded with information of varying
degrees of quality;
— Add education for mutual understanding
to the compulsory curriculum. This involves learning how to handle
relations and arguments with other people and how to empathise
with other people's points of view; it can include anti-racism,
including countering stereotyping, the development of tolerance
and understanding of people from other cultures, faiths and identities.
These life skills are important for children to learn in any society,
but have added significance in a country suffering from the legacy
of conflict and likely to become increasingly multiracial in future
as a member of the EU;
— Add common cultural heritage to the
compulsory curriculum so that children learn, experience and come
to value the heritage of all the people on the island eg all pupils
could study the contribution of the Ancient Greeks and the Ottomans
to the world; learn the common and different dance, theatre, music,
folklore of people on Cyprus; learn about Cypriots' common identity
as islanders, Eastern Mediterraneans and Europeans. This offers
positive and enjoyable ways to value the culture of all people
on Cyprus and consider their future place in the world as EU citizens—and
can be linked in to common European cultural schemes;
— Cross-community contact schemes involving
Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot children working together on
joint curriculum projects in each other's school one day a week.
This provides a valuable way to develop friendships and common
interests with each other that can have a lasting impact on relations
in society. Schools from north and south can also link electronically
as part of wider EU Comenius schemes linking four or five schools
from different countries on joint language work;
— Bicommunal schools: ultimately, increasing
the number of schools where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots
learn together will offer more deep-rooted integration, though
language and political barriers would have to be overcome.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
PROPOSAL
9. The second suggestion is for Cypriots
to create a grass-roots constitutional convention, borrowing from
the experience of the Constitutional Convention in Scotland and
similar bodies in other places, to find an island-wide consensus
on how the functionality of the Annan Proposals can be improved
in the interests of all Cypriots. This would build on the successful
work of the technical committees during the Annan process and
would address a fundamental problem that the negotiation process
so far has divided Cypriots in ways that encourage each community
to struggle to secure its own interests rather those of everyone
on the island as a whole. A convention would allow Cypriots to
look at the problem afresh from an island-wide view without the
interference of outside powers. Based on consensus and operating
at an advisory level, below political parties, it could encourage
co-operation, fresh thinking and mutual political understanding.
Its recommendations would be easier for parties to adopt on both
sides if grass-roots island-wide consensus can be demonstrated.
It would give Cypriots a sense of ownership of solutions that
emerge and would offer a vehicle for mobilizing public opinion
in favour of any changes.
SUMMARY
10. The Annan process has been going on
for so long now that its modus operandi has been taken for granted,
without recognition that there is an important place for a supplementary
channel by which Cypriots can co-operate and devise ways to break
the logjam based on the interests of all the people on the island
rather than by looking to secure the interests of simply their
own community. The increased contact between Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots after the Green Line was opened and with the
help of the recent lifting of restrictions makes the absence of
grass-roots cross-community participation in the discussion and
development of a final settlement an anachronism. It also raises
questions about the timescales envisaged in the Annan Plan. A
constitutional convention will have more chance of succeeding,
as will any future settlement, if the communities are actively
co-operating in their joint interests in other areas such as education,
with the important spin-off that the future citizens of the country
will be better prepared for living together.
11. There is a strong argument that the
EU has so far failed to take enough responsibility for helping
to solve the problem it has now inherited and over which it can
exercise critical leverage, and that the UN abrogated some of
its responsibility when it allowed the skewed arbitration of the
Annan proposals. Either party could help restore or build confidence
by playing a role in facilitating constructive cross-community
initiatives.
12. As an influential member of both the
EU and the United Nations, the UK government should accept the
responsibility that goes with having a direct military interest
in and sovereign territory on Cyprus and encourage both international
bodies to redouble their efforts to help Cypriots find an island-wide
consensus on a solution. It should also be exerting its influence
on Turkey to do more to address Greek-Cypriot fears which led
to a No vote by demonstrating its commitment to implementing the
Annan Plan in full and respecting in perpetuity the territorial
integrity, constitutional arrangements and sovereignty of the
proposed United Cyprus Republic.
Brendan O'Malley
12 September 2004
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