Intransigence
…EU states do not wish to breach the commitment they undertook at the Helsinki summit, but, at the same time, they are unwilling to inherit the Cyprus dispute. For this reason, they included an ambiguous phrase in the Helsinki document which can function as a loophole in case they decide to back down. For the time being, however, anything is possible because, despite the current impasse in the Clerides-Denktash negotiations, the prospect of a solution cannot be excluded. Turkey takes every opportunity to threaten that it will block Cyprus’s entry if there is no prior solution to the political problem. In the past, Ankara threatened to annex the occupied territory but more recently it has spoken in vaguer terms, warning that it will react in a forceful fashion that will lead to a crisis. Ankara’s aim is to push things to the limit in order to intimidate the European Union and thereby prevent Cyprus’s accession. If things come to a head, Europe may be tempted to abandon the German precedent, meaning that the Republic of Cyprus will enter, while the accession of the occupied part will freeze until the political dispute has been overcome. An accession of the free section of Cyprus would mean the final division of the island. Meanwhile, Nicosia is keeping a flexible stance in negotiations in order to avoid the blame for a potential failure, while Athens has issued a clear warning that should negotiations fail, it will block the whole process of enlargement…
