Turkey pushes for Cyprus deal on brink of Greek EU presidency

Turkey and Greece -- former foes turned partners -- turned over a new leaf in their relations after the meeting of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in early March. Announcing its foreign policy priorities in late July, Greece placed the Cyprus issue and its relations with Turkey at the top, a concrete display of the countries' developing relations. While they have both been experiencing a thriving relationship recently in the fields of economy, trade and tourism, which had not existed for a long time, Greece's EU chairmanship in the first half of 2014 has aroused Turkey's interest.

While there is still some time before Greece's EU presidency, Turkey has been congratulating itself on its newly signed agreements with the EU on visa liberalization and readmission. Seen as an important step for Turkey on the way to the EU, the visa exemption and readmission deals brought fresh air to Turkey's EU candidacy and fueled Turkish citizens' interest, which had been in decline in previous years.

However, Turkey must unravel the Cyprus issue, which has been in deadlock for a long time, to progress in its EU candidacy. The EU process has been a difficult road for Turkey, as eight chapters have been blocked since 2006, including those on financial services, transport policy, customs union and external relations. Cyprus has continued to be an item of discussion and one of the major obstacles for Turkey's advance towards EU membership.

While reciprocal visits from special representatives of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) to Athens and the Greek Cypriot administration to Ankara were scheduled for the second half of October, these have still not occurred, and Turkey has made great efforts to back its new Cyprus plan with support from the US, the United Kingdom and the United Nations. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu exchanged phone calls with his American and British counterparts, John Kerry and William Hague, respectively, to discuss the Cyprus dispute prior to his Athens visit. Davutoğlu then held a series of meetings in Athens on Dec. 13 to examine the details of renewed talks between the two parties.

Following his visit to Athens, Davutoğlu made a trip to the KKTC on Dec. 14 and spoke with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos to share the latest developments.

Turkey's new initiative proposes single representation in international platforms but joint sovereignty on the island, which would protect the rights of both Turks and Greeks. If this formula is accepted by the Greeks, both sides will have equal rights and neither side will dominate the other.

But so far, the talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders on a reunification plan have failed to break any new ground. The talks stalled in January 2012 due to various postponements from Greek Cyprus, and no significant progress has been achieved in decades of UN-backed reunification talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders.

However, Fuat Aksu, an academic specializing in Greece-Turkey relations, believes that the Cyprus issue is part of Turkey's new image for its foreign policy.

Speaking to Sunday's Zaman, Aksu explained that Turkey's pressure on the Cyprus issue aims to create a positive picture of its foreign policy. He claims that Turkey is trying to demonstrate its good relations with Europe.

Frustrated by decades of unfruitful negotiations to reunify the divided island, Turkey wants the Cyprus dispute to be resolved as soon as possible as the stalling of unification talks will also mean that Turkey's EU membership is shelved.

Turkey's most recent push to join the EU was also when Greece last held the rotating EU presidency, in 2003. Turkey then produced a new proposal on Cyprus to show its willingness to solve the deadlock and eliminate the barriers to its EU membership, at a time when its new ally was preparing for the EU presidency.

A Greek Cypriot newspaper -- reportedly Phileleftheros -- printed details of Davutoğlu's visit to Athens the day after his talks with Greek officials. The newspaper reported Venizelos saying that if there is no progress on the Cyprus issue, there will be no progress in any field, referring to Turkey-Greece and Turkey-EU relations.

Mustafa Kutlay, an analyst at Ankara's International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) believes that Greece's EU presidency will not yield substantial results for Turkey. Speaking to Sunday's Zaman, Kutlay said that, despite Turkey's efforts to solve the Cyprus issue, Greece's priority is the eurozone and its problems. “The EU should also show a commitment to Cyprus. However, it seems that it does not have the will to solve this issue,” he said.

Cyprus has been split between Turkish and Greek Cypriots since 1974, despite reunification efforts in 2003. These reunification talks stalled in 2004 when the Greek Cypriots rejected a UN scheme dubbed the Annan plan, prepared by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which was overwhelmingly accepted by Turkish Cypriots in a referendum. Greek Cyprus joined the EU soon afterward, and Brussels recognizes the Greek Cypriot-controlled government in the south as the island's sole authority.

The Annan plan was a result of Turkey's EU accession gaining speed in 2003. Turkey made a significant number of reforms based on EU criteria in 2003, when its hopes of becoming an EU member were still fresh.