The process of integrating Cyprus into the European Union began Mar. 30 with a formal meeting of the European Union Council of Ministers in Brussels. Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides called it a  historic moment, and said that Cyprus feels confident that as a full member of the Union it will contribute to the stability and welfare of the European family.

He said with its advanced technical infrastructure, Cyprus has the ability to become the region’s economic and financial operations center, a communications and transport hub and a bridge from where European enterprises can launch their activities.  We will do everything we can to make this a reality, he said.

On Mar. 31, individual intergovernmental conferences began with Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, the six leading nations of the eleven applicants to join the European Union. The second group will include Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The EU delegation for Cyprus’s negotiations will be headed by Leopold Maurer of Austria.  Instructive meetings will be held in September to identify any problem areas in the countries’ respective accession bids.

President Clerides, who attended the European Conference in London in mid-March and held talks with EU rotating President Tony Blair, also welcomed the beginning of the accession talks as "historic.  He expressed  full satisfaction with the opening statement of the EU British presidency by which the accession process for Cyprus was launched. In those remarks, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, President of the EU Council of Ministers, described the first meeting as  a milestone, and commended applicant countries for the progress they have made so far in preparing for membership, noting also that the EU should reform its policies and institutions to prepare for enlargement. Hans Van den Broek, European Commissioner responsible for enlargement, told the Brussels meeting a successful enlargement is one of the main  political priorities in the years ahead and assured applicant countries that progress towards membership would depend on the applicants’ conformity. Cyprus is widely regarded as among the best qualified for early entry.

The U.S. State Department spokesman reacted positively to this development noting that this  can be a positive catalyst in a settlement of the disputes that separate the communities on Cyprus.

Meanwhile, in his opening remarks, Cook said,  Cyprus’s preaccession strategy will be based in particular on participation in certain targeted projects, as well as on participation in certain community programs and agencies.

The European Union welcomes the offer your government has made to include Turkish Cypriot representatives in the team for negotiating the terms of Cyprus’s accession to the EU, Foreign Secretary Cook told Cyprus’s Foreign Minister at the opening session of the accession talks. Cook added that,  The European Union regrets that the Turkish Cypriot community has so far responded negatively to this offer.

Commenting on the efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, Mr. Cook said that the EU  objective remains a bicommunal, bizonal federation on the basis of a comprehensive political settlement in accordance with the U.N. Security Council Resolutions. A political settlement would allow the provisions of the Accession Treaty to be implemented throughout the island. Progress towards accession and towards a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem will naturally reinforce each other. The Union reaffirms its full support for the search for a solution which is now proceeding through talks under the aegis of the U.N. and hopes that negotiations will resume without delay.

In his statement on this historic first session, Foreign Minster Kasoulides noted that,  The EU accession process will undoubtedly change the context of the Cyprus problem and act as a catalyst for the reunification of our country. He added,  Accession to the EU is not a substitute for the solution of the problem of the division of Cyprus. For us, the most important priority, for which we will spare no effort, is to end the division of our country and to reunite our homeland and our people. The process and prospect of accession to the European Union should be at the service of this most important and fundamental objective.

We commit ourselves, he continued,  to work positively and constructively with the U.N. Secretary-General, in the context of his mandate of good offices mission, for the formation of a bizonal, bicommunal federation on the basis of the relevant Security Council resolutions. We are searching for a mutually acceptable solution so that the communities of Cyprus can live together within a federation. All Cypriots belong to Cyprus and Cyprus belongs equally to them . . . . The process of negotiating our accession to the EU is parallel and independent of the process under the auspices of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable permanent solution to the Cyprus problem.

In Nicosia, President Clerides said he fully expects an unhindered accession course will proceed with any existing problems solved. He said he regrets the Turkish Cypriot refusal to participate in the talks with the Republic’s negotiating team which Cook called courageous.

The Cyprus government has repeatedly stated that it would like the Turkish Cypriot community to be involved in this historic process.

The Turkish Cypriot refusal to join the talks will not stall the accession process, however. On his return from Brussels on Apr. 1, Foreign Minister Kasoulides expressed confidence about the accession process which will lead to Cyprus’s full membership in the EU. He noted that  no country entered accession negotiations without success.

In contrast to the positive gestures made by the Cyprus government and the EU, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership have adopted a negative position to the accession process.

External Relations Commissioner Van den Broek called on Turkey (on Mar. 31) to  no longer indulge in statements that give the EU the impression that self-fulfilling  prophesies are being created as far as tensions in the eastern Mediterranean are concerned, because of the start of negotiations that were decided as far back as 1995.

On Apr. 3, Van den Broek urged the Turkish side to reconsider their objections to the accession process of Cyprus to the EU. He told reporters that  the Turkish Cypriot community is being victimized because of all kinds of political considerations which I feel are withholding from them a better and more prosperous future.

U.S. Initiative:  Holbrooke
to Continue Efforts

The failure of the latest U.N. effort to restart the intercommunal talks and the beginning of the EU accession process has created an opportunity for American diplomacy to become more engaged.

The first week of April saw high-level visits to Cyprus by U.S.  Presidential Emissary for Cyprus, Richard Holbrooke, and State Department Special Coordinator, Thomas Miller. The U.S. officials met separately with President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

On Apr. 3 State Department Spokesman James Rubin described their missions as part of an ongoing effort to  achieve the objective we have long set, which is to engage the two leaders in a process that leads to a settlement on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

The talks were inconclusive, however, with Holbrooke characterizing Denktash as not willing to  yield an inch from his demands for recognition. He emphasized that the U.S. position had not changed.  Our position is equally clear. We do not recognize [an] independent, sovereign Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and we cannot do that. That is not our position. We recognize the Republic of Cyprus and we recognize Glafcos Clerides as its president, he said.
Despite the lack of progress in the recent meetings, Holbrooke announced that informal contact between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot businessmen on ways to pursue economic cooperation would resume.  I consider this very important, . . . it may seem small to all of you, but you have to work your way forward wherever you can, he said.

After meetings on Apr. 2 in Nicosia to prepare the way for Holbrooke’s subsequent visit, Special Coordinator Miller stated,  I think you understand what our efforts are all about; this is very serious and I think it’s a very critical point that we’ve reached at this point in time. He also noted that  security is one of the core issues in any settlement in Cyprus. Miller underscored the U.S. desire to resolve the Cyprus issue.  We’re making some very serious efforts to try to be helpful, he said.

At the press conference following his meetings on Apr. 4, Presidential Emissary Holbrooke announced that he would return to Cyprus in May for further talks at the request of both Clerides and Denktash.

Meanwhile, on Mar. 26, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced a resolution (H. Con. Res. 252) urging President Bill Clinton to seize the opportunity presented by the new Cypriot presidential term and the opening of accession talks to launch a Cyprus initiative.

The resolution states that a  settlement must be based on a state of Cyprus with a single sovereignty and international personality and single citizenship, with its independence and territorial integrity safeguarded. It also states that the EU accession process  could serve as a catalyst for resolving the situation in Cyprus.
 

U.N. Effort Deadlocked
Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, has moved to torpedo the latest U.N. effort to restart intercommunal talks. Turkish troops have held more than 37 percent of Cyprus territory since 1974, in violation of repeated U.N. resolutions calling for their withdrawal.

After a meeting in Geneva on Mar. 28, Secretary-General, Kofi Annan urged Denktash to resume talks with President Clerides in order to reach a solution in Cyprus. In a statement read by Spokesman Fred Eckhard, Mr. Annan expressed disappointment at the outcome of the visit to Nicosia of his special advisor on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, and, in particular,  that it was not possible to find a common basis on which to continue the process of negotiations between the leaders of the two communities.

Denktash has refused to restart the talks unless the U.N. extends formal recognition to the illegal regime in occupied Cyprus. After meeting Annan, Denktash said, there can be  no settlement until his regime is recognized as an official state.

Eckhard pointed out that there is no alternative route to a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus problem based on a bicommunal, bizonal federal state.  The talks between the two leaders are the only framework within which the two communities in Cyprus are treated on the basis of full political equality, he said.

The Secretary-General will ask Mr. Cordovez to continue to explore with the parties ways to resume the intercommunal talks.  Otherwise there is a real risk that the situation in the area will deteriorate, and tension will increase, Eckhard said.

Following a round of shuttle diplomacy in March, Mr. Cordovez briefed foreign envoys in Switzerland and conceded that the talks are in deadlock. He noted that he is bound by U.N. Security Council resolutions which call for Turkey’s withdrawal and  talks between the two community leaders, and thus unable to accommodate Denktash’s demand.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James Foley called the Turkish Cypriot position of the intercommunal and EU accession talks unfortunate.

During a visit to Cyprus in early April, Russian envoy for Cyprus Vladimir Tchizhov called for a renewal of bicommunal negotiations.  What is needed at the moment is the resumption of the Secretary-General’s good offices mission and the resumption of bicommunal talks soon, he said. When asked if he was optimistic after meeting with Denktash, he said that he was not.

Nevertheless, he described his meetings with President Clerides as useful and interesting.
The U.N. Secretary-General’s resident representative, Gustave Feissel, also met with President Clerides in early April. He welcomed the visits of foreign envoys saying;  That is a good development which reflects the importance that the important members of the international community are attaching to the Cyprus question and the realization that something needs to be done about it.

Meanwhile on Apr. 3, after a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, U.N. Secretary-General Annan said that they had discussed the Cyprus problem and how to  seek to heal the division there. 
 

Action on Americans
Missing Since 1974
New DNA evidence and forensic exams have confirmed the identity of an American missing in Cyprus since the Turkish invasion of 1974.  Four other American citizens are still unaccounted for. Officials say the U.S. will continue its efforts to try to ascertain the fate of the remaining American citizens.

The case of 17-year old Andreas Kasapis sets a precedent. He was abducted in 1974 by invading Turkish troops while vacationing in Cyprus with his family even though he displayed his American passport.

In a 1994 mandate the U.S. Congress asked President Bill Clinton to do everything possible to return to their families the U.S.  citizens who have been missing from Cyprus, including returning the remains of those who are no longer alive. Ambassador Robert Dillon assembled a five-member team of U.S. experts to look into the matter.

The actual work on location in the Kasapis case started the first week of December 1997 and was completed soon afterwards. The remains were tested in a military lab in the U.S. and DNA analysis confirmed the remains were those of Kasapis.

Officials say the breakthrough was made possible by the recently United Nations-brokered agreement hammered out by Deputy Representative of the Secretary General, Gustave Feissel.
That agreement calls on the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to exchange information on missing persons and make the necessary arrangements leading to the return of all remains. In January, when the lists were exchanged under United Nations auspices, they revealed significant information on persons on both sides missing after the 1974 Turkish invasion.

In March, it was announced that Swiss Jean Pierre Ritter will become the U.N. Secretary General’s representative on the Committee of Missing Persons (CMP), a post that has been vacant for three years.
 

Destruction of Religious
and Cultural Heritage
The Council of Europe’s (CoE) Committee of Ministers has decided to examine the continuing destruction of the cultural and religious heritage in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus. The move came after a series of official complaints by Cyprus about the occupation regime’s threatened destruction of a historic Armenian monastery in the north by turning it into a hotel.
Despite Turkish reactions, the committee decided to continue examining the issue in order to finalize action to be taken by the CoE.

In a related development the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (EIAO) condemned on Apr. 1 the destruction of the cultural and religious heritage in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus, describing it as crimes against humanity.

In a unanimously adopted resolution the EIAO expressed deep concern about the planned conversion of the Armenian monastery of Saint Makar into a hotel noting that this would be a violation of UNESCO declarations. It is estimated that over 500 churches and other religious sites in the occupied area have been destroyed or have been converted to other purposes since 1974.
 

Lambrou’s  Ulysses in Texas
For nine years, Cyprus had been engaged in a cultural exchange with the city of Austin, Texas, initiated by Ballet Austin Artistic Director Lambros Lambrou. Ballet Austin performed for Festival Cyprus in 1994 and now runs a summer dance workshop on the island.

On Mar. 6, Ballet Austin premiered at Bass Concert Hall to rave reviews Lambrou’s rendition of Homer’s epic The Odyssey with an original composition by fellow Cypriot Michael Cristodoulides.

According to Lambrou, this ballet is a tribute to the people of Cyprus, 200,000 of whom have not been able to return to their homes since 1974 due to Turkey’s illegal military occupation of the northern part of the island.

In his message, Cyprus’s Ambassador to the U.S., Andros Nicolaides, who was unable to attend the event wrote,  Cyprus owes a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Lambrou for his tireless efforts to promote Cyprus, its people, culture and art.
 

Benefit for Cancer
On Mar. 6 over 700 people attended a fund-raiser for the Cancer Research Foundation at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The event featured several paintings by Melina Nicolaides, a young Cypriot artist.

Ms. Nicolaides is gaining recognition for her paintings, known for their large size and bright colors. She has spent some time abroad in India, Switzerland, Italy and Germany and has developed a global outlook, according to The Washington Times,  and made it come to life in the quick, vibrant brush strokes and bright colors that characterize her work.

Proceeds from the sale of one of her paintings were donated to the Cancer Research Foundation for mammograms for underprivileged women.

Ms. Nicolaides is the daughter of the Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States.

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