CYPRUS QUESTION AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

Abstract

The Cyprus question is widely discussed in the diplomatic and academic circles since the Cold War era. During the Cold War years, the Cyprus question worried the Western Bloc due to the fact that the two NATO allies Turkey and Greece came face to face which may have been damaged the southern wing of NATO. In fact, the establishment of the Cyprus Republic with London and Zurich Treaties aimed to accomplish a solution different than Turkey’s division of Cyprus and Greece’s ENOSIS (Cyprus’s integration with Greece) plans. However, it did not work and the Republic of Cyprus de facto ended with Greek Cypriot’s attacked to the Turks in Christmas of 1963. After the Greece’s backed military coup in Cyprus and overthrown of Makarious, Turkey conducted Cyprus Peace Operation to save Turks in the island in 1974. Turkey used its rights given by the Guarantee Agreements. All negotiations for the solution of the Cyprus question failed. Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus’s application for the EU membership added the new parameter in the Cyprus issue. The Cyprus question continued in the post-Cold War era with the new parameters. The efforts to solve the question before the Cyprus’s membership of the EU failed with the rejection of the Annan Plan from the Greek side in the referendum. As a result the Greek Administration of the Southern Cyprus became EU member and the Cyprus question remains unsolved. The developments in the international system also altered the parameters of the Cyprus question. In this paper the Cyprus question will be analyzed in the light of international developments and the Cyprus question’s interactions with international system will be evaluated discussing possible scenarios in the issue.

Keywords

• Cyprus
• Turkey
• TRNC
• Greece
• Annan Plan
• International System

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