Cypriots angry at UK

London undermining a policy banning links to island’s north, Nicosia says

Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos (r) and Foreign Minister George Iacovou at the launch of NATO’s summit in Brussels earlier this week. Papadopoulos used the opportunity to stress the ‘bitterness’ he claimed the UK has created in Cyprus.

By Michele Kambas - Reuters

NICOSIA - The love-hate relationship between Cyprus and its former colonial master Britain appears to be headed for stormy waters over trade and travel links to the breakaway Turkish statelet on the island’s northern tip.

The row burst into the open at this week’s EU-US summit, when Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said Greek Cypriots were unhappy with Britain over the perception that London is undermining a policy that bans direct trade and travel to the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus.

“There have been many instances where their (Britain) deeds and words have caused bitterness,” Papadopoulos said.

Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish-Cypriot regime. The rest of the world views the Greek-Cypriot government in the south as the legal representative of the entire island, which joined the European Union last May as the “Republic of Cyprus.”

Cyprus has been split along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a short-lived Greek-Cypriot coup backed by a military junta then ruling Greece. Turkey keeps an estimated 30,000 troops in the north.

Britain has championed attempts to boost direct trade and flights with northern Cyprus since Greek Cypriots voted against a UN-brokered reunification package in a referendum last year.

Turkish Cypriots voted in favor in a separate ballot.

The Greek Cypriots, who run the island’s internationally recognized government, have ruled out any talk of direct trade links between the Turkish-occupied north and the outside world and take a dim view of any efforts to establish such links.

“You should ask the British why they are doing it... Let’s just say we disagree on a few points,” a senior Greek-Cypriot official told Reuters.

Although London says it is trying to meet EU commitments to help the Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots have always suspected their former colonial masters of Turkish bias.

“Britain is an evil omen,” said Demetris Christofias, a senior politician in Cyprus’s coalition government.

Britain’s efforts to ease trade and travel restrictions with the Turkish-occupied north have been echoed by the European Union in recognition of conciliatory comments made by the newly elected Turkish-Cypriot leader.

“We acknowledge there are some differences in our views on how best to facilitate a settlement and are engaging in an open dialogue with the Republic (of Cyprus) and other EU partners on how to reconcile these differences,” a British Embassy spokesman said.

Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat won EU praise and an ease to some trade restrictions for pledging to work for the reunification of Cyprus and closer ties with the European Union after he won the general election in February.

London relinquished its hold on Cyprus in 1960 but still retains two sprawling military bases which have provided key backup to military operations in the Middle East and Mediterranean, including those in Iraq.

British military sources say their presence is engraved in stone, but one Cypriot politician said their days are numbered.

“Britain must realize their military occupation of part of Cyprus is of a limited duration. If the government doesn’t take action, the people will,” said Marios Matsakis, a Cypriot member of the European Parliament from Papadopoulos’s centrist party.

One Cyprus watcher said that the chances of the row filtering through to Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union were very remote, despite the necessity for consensus from new EU member Cyprus.

“I really can’t see it having a direct impact on Turkey’s EU hopes. Direct trade will become a battle of wills between Cyprus and Britain, but that’s where it will remain. Quite frankly, nobody else in the EU seems to care,” said James Ker-Lindsay, a British analyst.