The first round of Presidential elections in the
Republic of Cyprus was held on 28 January 2018 with the participation of nine candidates.
The incumbent President Nicos Anastasiades received 35.50 percent of the votes,
while AKEL backed independent Stavros Malas got 30.25 percent. DİKO leader and
candidate Nicolas Papadopoulos was the third candidate, who garnered 25.74 per
cent and lost the chance to be in the second round. The voter turnout in the
first round was 71.88%, which was the lowest for a presidential election and
abstention reached 28.1%.
Since
no candidate secured 50 plus one vote, the run-off election was held one week
later on 4 February 2018 between President Nicos Anastasiades and independent
Stavros Malas. The winner was Nicos Anastasiades (71 years old), who received
55.99 per cent of the votes (215.281) and will stay in his post on a second
five-year term. Independent Stavros
Malas (51 years old) lost the election to his rival with 44.01 per cent
(169.243). The turnout in the second round was a little bit higher than the
first one, 73.97%. Abstention votes reached 26.03%, invalid votes 2.65%, blank
votes 2.99%.
President
Anastasiades told his followers after the results were announced that he was
willing to reactivate the inter-communal peace talks, which collapsed in
Switzerland last July. The AKEL criticized the President’s handling of the
Cyprus problem especially during the election campaign that he bears the
responsibility for the failure of talks.
Mr. Anastasiades said: “The biggest challenge we face is reunifying our
country. I will continue to work with the same determination in a bid to
achieve our common goal – ending foreign occupation and reunifying our state.
There are no winners or losers, just Cyprus.”
Now
that Mr. Anastasiades gained more of the centrist voters, he assured his
supporters that he was willing to cooperate with everyone in order to achieve
the common goal – ending the Turkish occupation and reunifying the island. Mr.
Anastasiades repeated that he would seek a peace deal that doesn't include
Turkey's demands for a permanent troop presence and the right to intervene
militarily in a federated Cyprus.
The
inter-communal talks have been going on since June 1968. The two communities
living on the island, Turkish Cypriots (18%) and Greek Cypriots (80%), were
trying to reach an agreement on a new constitution for the island republic,
first on a unitary basis until 1974 and then on a federal basis since 1974,
when the island was occupied by Turkish troops after a failed coup d’Etat
against President Makarios.
Turkish
Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told in an interview with the Greek Cypriot
Kathimerini newspaper on 4 February 2018 that the new Cyprus negotiations under
UN parameters could only begin, when Greek Cypriots change their mentality and
are willing to share power with their counterparts in the North of the island.
After the United Nations Security Council renewed the
mandate of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for a period of six
months on 30 January 2018, Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News reported that Turkish
Foreign Ministry underlined in a written statement that any process in the
coming period for the resolution of the decades-old Cyprus problem should be
based on “current realities” and on the fact that Turkish and Greek Cypriots
have differing conceptions of a new federal state.
Actually,
here is the crux of the matter: “Current realities” are the partition of the
island since 1974 with the proclamation of a breakaway state on the Turkish
occupied northern part, which is ethnically cleansed from the indigenous Greek
Cypriots and has more than 300,000 Anatolian settlers. Instead of a garrison of
650 Turkish soldiers, which was a part of the Treaty of Establishment of the
Republic of Cyprus in 1960, there are at present more than 35,000 Turkish
troops stationed in the occupied area. What else Turkey wants now for the
so-called security needs of the Turkish Cypriots, who are afraid of possible
future attacks by the Greek Cypriot nationalists, to have a permanent sovereign
base in the Northern part, similar to the one, proposed originally in the
Acheson Plan of 1964. This has been a part of the Natoization plans of the
island!
The
Turkish Cypriot side went further in the inter-communal talks and asked the
four freedoms for the Turkish nationals, who would remain in a re-united Cyprus.
If this is accepted, it will open the way for an uncontrolled migration from
Turkey to Cyprus or to the other EU member states. This possibility was already
dealt in an article by Christoph B. Schiltz in German daily “Die Welt”, dated
January 9, 2017, which stated that many bureaucrats in Brussels started to ask
questions like "Will Erdogan step into the EU through Cyprus? Will Cyprus
be Erdogan's Trojan Horse?"
Since
most of the constitutional issues are agreed upon, the issues of security and
guarantee of the new Federal Republic is the most important aspect of the next
phase of the inter-communal talks, which could be resolved with an
international conference, with the participation of the five permanent members
of the United Nations.
In
the new five-year term of President Nicos Anastasiades, I hope that a
compromise can open the way to a genuine federal solution. The longer the
partition lasts, the more the division solidifies.
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been trying to influence the secular Turkish
Cypriot community through religious and nationalist activities in the occupied
area. The Turkish Cypriots have increased their complaints against the cultural
and demographic changes, the alienation and islamization, designed by the
occupying power, Turkey. (*)
(*)Erdogan expressed his anger to the
criticism of the Turkish Cypriot “Afrika” newspaper, which published an article
on 21 January 2018 saying that Turkey’s operation in Syria was like Turkey’s
invasion of Cyprus. When Erdogan was informed about this, he called “on my
brothers in North Cyprus to give necessary response”. The result was an attack
by a group of local and Anatolian fascists against the office of the newspaper
and against the “Parliament”.
This
extreme nationalism and culture of intolerance is foreign to the secular
Turkish Cypriots. That’s why around 5,000 Turkish Cypriots attended a march
defending peace and democracy. The march was organised by the Trade Union
Platform, which represented more than 20 Turkish Cypriot trade unions and
associations. It was also backed by the New Cyprus Party, the United Cyprus
Party and the Socialist Liberation Party, which are not represented in the
“Parliament”. The demonstrators marched towards the ‘parliament’ building and chanted
‘shoulder to shoulder against fascism’, and for solidarity, democracy and
peace.
(published in In Depth – Special Issue – Bimonthly Electronic Newsletter, Cyprus Center for European
and International Affairs, University of Nicosia, Volume 15, Issue 1 – February
2018)
