Letter: A way out of the Cyprus impasse

A way out of the Cyprus impasse

Sir: The recent UN-sponsored talks in New York and Switzerland between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in Cyprus have broken down. They hardly got started, because of a fundamental and persistent disagreement over the issue of sovereignty in the new bi-communal, bi- zonal federal state that is the object of the negotiations.

The Greek Cypriots want the Turkish Cypriots to recognise that the federation will have one undivided sovereignty over one people and one territory. The new federal state is to them a modification of the bi-communal state established in 1960, the Republic of Cyprus, a state from which the Turkish Cypriots were excluded in 1964-65 unless they agreed to changes which would have turned them into a minority and which offended against the Constitution, which was "guaranteed" (ineffectively) by Britain, Greece and Turkey. International recognition of the purely Greek Cypriot administration as the government of Cyprus has been, and still is, deeply resented by the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey.

Consequently, the Turkish Cypriots, not trusting the Greek Cypriots, insist upon being treated as absolute equals in negotiations for a federation. In their view, in the final analysis, sovereignty rests in the two states which decide to create the federation. In other words they support the view that "sovereignty emanates equally from the two communities". The UN Secretary General tried this formulation in New York, but, it appears, in response to Greek Cypriot protests, has now abandoned it. The Turkish Cypriot response is to demand recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as a prelude to negotiations - a demand the UN will not accept.

The concept of sovereignty is bedevilling the issue. Both sides should be persuaded to drop it. In a federation sovereignty is, in fact, divided since some powers are accorded to the federal arm of government and some to the governments of the constituent states. Since the structure is functional, sovereignty over territory is irrelevant; some (the federal) functions are carried out throughout the territory, but many functions are just state-wide. Also there is no need to stress one citizenship: citizens relate to both levels of authority. Still less is there any need to mention the Cypriot people, or nation. Federations are not necessarily nation states - usually not, in fact.

The UN is still trying to reconcile theoretically irreconcilable positions. As in 1992, it has proved to be futile.

Professor CLEMENT DODD

Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire