Unpublished Writings - 1 / Very ambitious to reach a solution

           I have to admit that I really enjoyed the fluent report of Michael Jansen, where he points out that a diplomatic source say the Turkish side received 85 per cent of its demands at Burgenstock, and transmits from other sources that Turkey is celebrating (Happy ever after, Al-Ahram Weekly, 01-07 April 2004).
          There is a lot of information as well as a few comments on the negotiations held in Switzerland last week. I do not have any objective to discuss the comments, but there are a few points I feel myself urged to discuss as it may lead to misunderstanding otherwise.
          Mr Jansen smoothly mentions that the partition of Cyprus is in a way Turkey’s ambition which is even longstanding. Additionally, he describes Turkey as the new colonial power in the north. This is actually not verified by historical facts. It even contradicts.
          A colonial power just invades a foreign land, and exploits all types of resources and wealth of the occupied territories. Turkey on the contrary, did not occupy Northern Cyprus to exploit its wealth. It had sent the troops to protect the Turkish minority in Cyprus from being slaughtered by Greek Cypriots. I still remember the scenes of murdered children and women shown by German TV channels in summer 1974, and cannot forget it although 30 years have passed. Turkey is not ambitious to see Cyprus parted, but it cannot give up everything without a guarantee since it fears that all the disastrous events of that period may happen again. Turkey does not guide Turkish Cypriots, it just protects them to make them feel secure.
          I want to emphasise in short the need of a correction related to the Turkish presence in Northern Cyprus. It has no ambition to see Cyprus being parted, but some realities cannot be changed. To deal with the various attempts of the Greek Cypriots at that time to swipe away all the Turks from Cyprus, it had no other choice. Turkey is neither a colonial power nor something even resembling it. We have seen from the outcomes of Burgenstock, and we will also see in the near future that Turkey is very ambitious to reach a solution beneficial for both Turkish and Greek Cypriots.

For Al-Ahram Weekly, April 10th, 2004