Zero guarantees, zero troops, zero hopes

July 3, 2022

223

By George Koumoulli

I do not believe that there is any Greek Cypriot who does not want the abolition of guarantees and the withdrawal of all foreign troops. Perhaps the most horrific aspect of the history of Cyprus is the one concerning the devastating consequences of the behavior of the so-called Guarantor Powers.

This horrible experience can be sketched with a parable inspired by Aesop: three foxes identified themselves as protectors of a newborn chicken that has just begun to stretch through the feathers of the spinner. But in the animal kingdom, the laws of nature are relentless and relentless. So, in the middle of some summer, the first “protector” fox attacked the chick wanting the prey 100% her own. But the second fox also wanted its share and claimed it vigorously, while the third fox was indifferent, having long ago secured a share of the booty. In the end, the ignorant chicken who harbored the illusion that his safety was “guaranteed” was dismembered.

Unfortunately for the Cypriots, the 1960 Guarantee Treaty, which gives invasive rights to the three guarantor powers and also the stay of their troops on Cypriot territory, cannot be replaced by any other agreement or treaty and cannot be revoked either. Its provisions are legally binding on all four parties from the point of view of international law and will remain in force indefinitely, unless, of course, the four Contracting States agree to either repeal or amend it.

Therefore, by rejecting a solution in which the Guarantee Treaty remains in force, it does not follow that Turkey ceases to have invasive rights. In other words, if the status quo continues, we are perpetuating the Turkish army’s stay in Cyprus and Turkey’s right to unilaterally intervene. Smart politics is the pursuit of a solution, even if it contains invasive rights, that is better than the current status quo that everyone admits poses mortal dangers to Greek Cypriots. With this in mind, the slogan “zero troops and zero guarantees” may sound heroic and reminiscent of Kolokotronis and Karaiskakis, but it is not compatible with realpolitik. No Turkish government will consent to the abrogation of the Guarantee Treaty, except under certain conditions in the long term. The unconsciousness on the part of our politicians of this reality makes the solution of the Cyprus problem completely impossible.

Tassos Papadopoulos, the high priest of the rejectionists, preferred to achieve a solution even with guarantees and troops, as long as it was better than the current status quo. He realized, somewhat late, that the Zurich-London Agreements providing for troops and guarantees were a blessing compared to the current situation. He stated in January 2005 that the Agreements “were a blessing compared to what followed… The Cypriot people found themselves with a Constitution that they did not want, they did not ask for it and did not have the time to understand the benefits and advantages of this new Constitution, which was not the union with Greece, but was something better: It was an independence of the whole people…”.
I wish, therefore, that we could return to the Zurich-London Agreements, even if they provided for the stay of Turkish troops (650 soldiers) and invasive rights, rather than sitting now on a volcano that can be activated at any time by an unfortunate or “unfortunate” incident in the Aegean.

As I have stressed in my previous articles, in order to convince the Turks and the Turkish Cypriots to abolish the guarantees and the invasive rights, there must be a period of time (the duration of which is debatable) in which the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live in peace and brotherhood, as before 1955, in order to consolidate the sense of security of the Turkish Cypriots.

the right of intervention would automatically become a dead letter, so it would be relatively easy to persuade Turkey to consent to the abrogation of the Treaty. Otherwise, “zero guarantees, zero troops” will be just an emotional, utopian slogan that will resonate only with the politically immature and naïve. Indicative of the insecurity felt by the Turkish Cypriots, is a poll three years ago that revealed that 89% of Turkish Cypriots expressed themselves in favor of preserving Turkey’s invasive rights.

Unfortunately, we do not contribute at all to the consolidation of the sense of security of the Turkish Cypriots. How will they accept the abolition of the guarantees when they feel that they can be stoned by passing with their car outside the building of a football club in Nicosia? When no government has dared to adopt a Cypriot national (state to be precise) anthem and we insist on using the Greek national anthem that refers to the idea of nation-two states and essentially describes the Republic of Cyprus as the “second Greek state”? When just last month two Greek Cypriots boasted on television that in May 1964 they murdered dozens of Turkish Cypriots in cold blood our parties and the Police did not react at all, sending the message that the murder of Turkish Cypriots is not a criminal offense and therefore is not punishable.

This icy indifference towards the murderers suggests that in the CT there is the law of absolute lawlessness, the law of absolute injustice, the morality of absolute immorality, and it is, therefore, impossible to regulate the peaceful coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.