CYPRUS: BEYOND THE INTERNATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL NORMALITY

Stephanos Constantinides, Université du Québec à Montréal, Director Centre For Hellenic Studies and Research Canada-KEEK, Research associate, University of Crete

The joint communiqué that saw the light of day – thanks to the Americans – and that will allow the resumption of intercommunal dialogue in Cyprus, does not leave much room for optimism. As a whole it doesn’t prescribe not even a federal state but a loose confederation of two states. In two essential respects, those of sovereignty and citizenship it is beyond any constitutional normality and opens the way for serious problems in the future. The issue of sovereignty is not safeguarded in the joint communiqué. There is a clear  specification that sovereignty “emanates equally from Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.” In any democratic country in the world, sovereignty, constitutionally defined, emanates  from the people and not from ethnic communities. Otherwise, why sovereignty in the U.S. is not emanating  from the Whites, African Americans, Hispanics and perhaps from other ethnic groups? If that were the same for France or Spain, sovereignty would result also from ethnic groups and not from  the Spanish and the French people. On the other hand, every democratic country has a single citizenship. The countries reported, there are not facing, for a domestic problem, a foreign country, and have not been invaded, as happens with Cyprus. It is well known that Turkey is claiming permanent intervention rights in Cyprus and is using Turkish Cypriots as a strategic minority, much like Germany in the 1930s used Sudetenland Germans to advance its own expansionist interests. The Turkish Cypriots were, and still are being used as a strategic minority to provide the excuse for Turkey to satisfy its expansionist aims.  In no federal state also there is constitutionally enshrined apartheid that is provided for the future Cypriot construct, a confederal type nebula. In conclusion, all these provisions of the joint communiqué are beyond the international constitutional normality.  People of Cyprus is to be used as guinea pigs in the hands of the New World Order. A model that may be used in the future for other peoples.

It is also important to mention that the joint communiqué responds only to turkish demads and  is a kind of mini Agreement on the constitutional aspect of the Cyprus problem, but says nothing on the questions concerning Greek Cypriots. For example, the security issues that are basically important for Greek Cypriots since Cyprus will be located in one way or another, because of geography and because of the expansionist aspirations of Ankara, under the Turkish sword of Damocles, are not addressed at all. Ankara says it will not give up in any way, on its guarantee invasive rights on Cyprus. There is no international sovereign state that is faced with a similar situation as Cyprus. There is also the property and the territory issues, there is the issue of settlers which are vital for the Greek Cypriots  and which are not addressed at all in the joint communiqué. Eventually this joint communiqué, was made only for the Turkish side.

It is obvious that Nikos Anastasiadis starts from where he was stopped by the Cypriot people in the 2004 referendum and wants, restoring something worse than the Annan plan, to take a rivench  of his then  failure. The Cypriot people has the right to constitutional  normality, it has the right to democracy. It is not a guinea pig people in the hands of the neoliberal new world order, nor a people with special needs. On the basis of democratic principles governing modern democracies, all citizens can, in all countries of the world, be elected  and represent their country, regardless of their ethnic origin, color, religion or their language. The people of Cyprus claims the same constitutional normality applied in every democratic country. According to this normality it does not matter if the tomorrow’s president, tomorrow’s deputy, the future judge will be Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Maronite or of  any other origin. It will be  there as a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, as the African-American Obama is president of the U.S.  as a U.S. citizen , or as, to mention a historical example, Pierre Mandes France, of Jewish origin, was prime minister of France in 1954,  as a French citizen . And of course nothing prevents the safeguarding of any ethnic or other collective rights.

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