FT — A plan to stem Europe’s refugee crisis negotiated by Germany’s Angela Merkel could be scuppered by Cyprus after the country’s president, Nikos Anastasiades, warned he would not accept a key element: restarting key parts of Turkey’s EU membership negotiations.
Ankara has made the membership talks a condition of signing up to Ms Merkel’s plan, in which Turkey would accept the return of thousands of migrants washing ashore in Greece.
But without Cypriot acquiescence, the agreement — brokered personally by Ms Merkel with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu — could collapse at a summit next week.
“I will never accept being forced, and I will never give my consent, because otherwise I have no other choice but to not return back home,” Mr Anastasiades said in an interview.
The Cypriot government imposed the freeze in 2009 after Turkey failed to honour an agreement with the EU to recognise the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia and allow Cypriot ships to dock in Turkish ports; Mr Anastasiades said he cannot lift the freeze unless Ankara lives up to its commitments.
Mr Davutoglu appeared to boast about the concessions in remarks to Turkish reporters following an EU summit this week where the migrant pact was negotiated. “This [deal] has caused a fight within the EU,” Mr Davutoglu said on Tuesday. “They were really forced to turn on the Greek Cypriots in a serious way.”
Although the two men have agreed on many outstanding issues, they have for months been awaiting movement by Turkey, which must decide whether it is willing to withdraw the approximately 30,000 troops it has kept in Northern Cyprus since it invaded in 1974, splitting the island in two.
Mr Anastasiades said that if he would concede to Turkish demands now, without receiving previously-agreed concessions from Ankara, citizens of the Greek Cypriot half of the island he leads would abandon their support for the reunification talks, ending years of sensitive work.
“Unfortunately, I could say they are putting in danger the whole procedure. They are sacrificing the unique opportunity to find a solution to the Cyprus question by putting us in such a difficult position,” he said. “It’s a very delicate moment, and at this very crucial moment, they are pushing us into a position to say ‘no’ to Turkey.”
Mr Akinci has an awkward relationship with Ankara: He won election as the president of Northern Cyprus last year on a platform of greater independence from Turkey, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, was cool to Mr Akinci at the start of his tenure.
Cypriot officials fear Ankara may have begun withdrawing support from Mr Akinci’s diplomatic outreach, and Mr Anastasiades said he would ask his fellow EU leaders to put pressure on Mr Erdogan to back the Turkish Cypriot initiatives.
“Mr Akinci has exhausted his limits,” he said. “That’s why I’m asking the Turkish government not just to encourage but also to support Mr Akinci, because he’s facing problems.”
Like most EU delegations, Cypriot diplomats said they were blindsided by Ms Merkel’s deal with Mr Davutoglu at Monday’s emergency summit to tackle the refugee crisis. In particular, they said the issue of opening new chapters was not raised in meetings in the days leading up to the summit — including a session with all 28 EU ambassadors less than 24 hours before it began.
According to officials who participated in the talks, Mr Anastasiades was informed about the demands by Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister who accompanied Ms Merkel in her talks with Mr Davutoglu — not Donald Tusk, the European Council president who had been leading EU negotiations with Turkey for weeks but had been cut out of Ms Merkel’s negotiations.
“The president of the European Council is Tusk, not Rutte,” said one diplomat angered by the breach of protocol.
Diplomats said the two sides may be able to find a compromise short of Turkey formally recognising the Greek Cypriot government if Ankara were willing to allow Cypriot-flagged ships to dock in Turkish ports.
Turkey has so far resisted, floating an idea that an airport on the northern side of the island be officially recognised under UN auspices in exchange. Currently, the Ercan airport — named after a Turkish fighter pilot who died in the 1974 Cyprus invasion — only operates flights to Turkey, and Nicosia views it as operating illegally.
