Europeanization and Political Change: The Case of Cyprus

Abstract

The Cyprus issue has been studied mainly with respect to state‐centered assumptions that concentrate on the power struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean. Perspectives integrating aspects of social theory beyond high politics have only recently been a focus of study in the case of Cyprus. This study emphasizes the necessity of developing a new methodological framework and employing new conceptual tools with the help of the theoretical advances in comparative sociopolitical analysis. In this context, studying the Cyprus problem within a framework defined by Europeanization with respect to the changes in national and international conditions in different periods allows a comparative analysis of the transformations in the positions of traditional and social and economic actors towards solving the problem.

Acknowledgements

The author conducted a significant part of the research for this article within the framework of a research project entitled “Change in Cyprus in the Context of the Process of Europeanization.” This research was funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBTAK) and carried out at the Center for European Studies at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where the author worked as a Research Fellow from 2005 to 2008.

Notes

1. Michael Attalides, Cyprus: Nationalism and International Politics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979); Faruk Sönmezoğlu, Tarafların Tutumu ve Tezleri Açısından Kıbrıs Sorunu (1945–1986) [Cyprus Problem in Terms of Parties’ Attitudes and Positions] (Istanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Basım ve Film Merkezi, 1991); Michael Moran, Sovereignty Divided: Essays on the International Dimension of the Cyprus Problem (Nicosia: CYREP, 1998); Süha Bölükbaşı, Barışçı Çözümsüzlük [Peaceful Deadlock](Ankara: İmge Yayınları, 2001).

2. Mustafa Kibaroglu, “Turkey’s Deterrent,” The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. 55, No. 2 (1999), http://mustafakibaroglu.com; Mustafa Kibaroglu, “Ege Doğu‐Akdeniz Denklemi’nde Kıbrıs’ın stratejik konumu ve Annan Planı,” [The Strategic Position of Cyprus and the Annan Plan in the equation of Egeo‐Eastern Mediterranean] Mülkiye Dergisi, No. 242 (2005), http://mustafakibaroglu.com.

3. P. Polyviou, Cyprus. Conflict and Negotiation, 1960–1980 (London: Duckworth, 1980); N. Salem, Cyprus: A Regional Conflict and Its Resolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992); Joseph Joseph, Cyprus: Ethnic Conflict and International Politics (London: Macmillan, 1997); Olivier Richmond, Mediating in Cyprus: The Cyprus Communities and the United Nations (London: Frank Cass, 1998).

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5. Salahi Sonyel, Cyprus: The Destruction of a Republic. British Documents 1960–65 (Huntingdon: The Eothen Press, 1997); S. Talmon, “The Cyprus Question before the European Court of Justice,” European Journal of International Law, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2001), pp. 727–50.

6. Murat Sarıca, Erdoğan Teziç, and Özer Eskiyurt, Kıbrıs Sorunu [Cyprus Problem] (Istanbul: Fakülteler Matbaası, 1975); Reşat Arım (ed.), Cyprus and International Law (Ankara: Foreign Policy Institute, 2002).

7. Arım, Cyprus and International Law, p. 1.

8. Proceedings of a Panel Discussion Held at the Turkish Embassy in London, 8 November 2001 (London: Turkish Embassy, 2002), p. 1.

9. Nancy Crawshaw, The Cyprus Revolt: An Account of the Struggle for Union with Greece (London: Unwin, 1978); Glen Camp, “Greek–Turkish Conflict over Cyprus,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 95, No. 1 (1980), pp. 43–70; Pierre Oberling, The Road to Bellapais: The Turkish Cypriot Exodus to Northern Cyprus (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982); Necati Ertegun, The Cyprus Dispute and the Birth of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Nicosia: K. Rustem and Brother, 1984); V. Calothychos (ed.), Cyprus and Its People: Nation, Identity, and Experience in Unimaginable Community, 1955–1997 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).

10. Zenon Stavrides, The Cyprus Conflict: National Identity and Statehood (Nicosia: Stavrides Press, 1999), p. 39.

11. Rebecca Bryant, Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004); Niyazi Kızılyürek, Milliyetçilik Kıskacında Kıbrıs [Cyprus in Clamp of Nationalisms] (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2002).

12. Mehmet Hasgüler, Kıbrıs’ta Enosis ve Taksimin İflası [The Failure of Enosis and Taksim in Cyprus] (Ankara: Öteki Yayınevi, 1998).

13. Thomas Diez, “Last Exit to Paradise? The EU, the Cyprus Conflict and the Problematic Catalytic Effect,” COPRI Working Paper (Copenhagen: COPRI, 2000).

14. Neil Nugent. “EU Enlargement and the ‘Cyprus Problem,’” Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1 (2000), pp. 131–50; Heinz Kramer, The EU Before the Accession of a Divided Cyprus: Some Thoughts on the Possible Consequences (Berlin: German Institute for International Politics and Security, 2001).

15. Michael Emeson and Nathalie Tocci, Cyprus as Lighthouse of the Eastern Mediterranean: Shaping Reunification and EU Accession Together (Brussels: Center for European Policy Studies, 2002); Nathalie Tocci, EU Accession Dynamics and Conflict Resolution: Catalysing Peace or Consolidating Partition in Cyprus? (Abingdo: Ashgate, 2004).

16. Thomas Diez, The European Union and the Cyprus Conflict: Modern Conflict, Postmodern Union (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002); N. Tocci and T. Kovziridze “Cyprus” in B. Coppieters et al., Europeanization and Conflict Resolution: Case Studies from the European Periphery (Gent: Academia Press, 2004), pp. 63–106.

17. “Turkish Cypriots Rally for UN Plan,” The Guardian, January 15, 2003.

18. For debate on the basic definitional problems of Europeanization, see two edited volumes on the subject: Maria Cowles, James Caporaso and Thomas Risse, (eds.), Transforming Europe: Europeanization and Domestic Change (New York: Cornell University Press, 2001) and Kevin Featherson and Claudio Radaelli (eds.), The Politics of Europeanization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

19. Cowles, Caporaso and Risse, Transforming Europe, p. 3.

20. Ibid., p. 4

21. Featherson and Radaelli, The Politics of Europeanization, pp. 5–12.

22. Robert Ladrech, “The Europeanization of Domestic Politics and Institutions: The Case of France,” Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1994), pp. 69–88; Peter Mair, “The Europeanization Dimension,” Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2004), pp. 337–48; Claudio Radaelli, “How Does Europeanization Produce Domestic Change? Corporate Tax Policy in Italy and the United Kingdom,” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 30, No. 5 (1997), pp. 553–75; Claudio Radaelli, “Europeanization: Solution or Problem?” European Integration Online Papers, Vol. 8, No. 16 (2004), http://www.eiop.or.at; James Buller and Andrew Gamble, “Conceptualizing Europeanization,” Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 17, No. 2 (2002), pp. 4–24; Johan Olsen, “The Many Faces of Europeanization,” Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 40, No. 5 (2002), pp. 921–52.

23. Featherstone and Radaelli, The Politics of Europeanization, p. 4.

24. Klaus Goetz, “Beyond Differential Impact: Territory, Temporality and Clustered Europeanization” in A. Agh and A. Ferencz (eds.), Deepening and Widening in an Enlarged Europe: The Impact of the Eastern Enlargement (Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2006), pp. 145–47.

25. For a detailed analysis of the motives of the parties since the Kardak crisis in 1997 to engage in a new search for a comprehensive settlement, which led to the Annan Plan issued in November 2002, see David Hanay, Cyprus: The Search for a Solution (London: I.B Tauris, 2005).

26. The economic crisis in TRNC found serious reflections in the Turkish press. See Ahmet Altan, “Şimdi sıra Kıbrıs’ta,” Sabah, January 15, 2000; “İşte Kıbrıs Raporu” Hurriyet, July 20, 2000; Cengiz Çandar, “Yalan mı?” Sabah, July 13, 2000; Cengiz Çandar, “Rum’un ekmeğine yağ sürmek,” Sabah, August 5, 2000; Sedat Sertoğlu, “Şeftali Kebabı Cumhuriyeti,”Sabah, July 26, 2000; Necati Doğru, “Kıbrıs’ta off‐shore üstü ıstakozlama,” Sabah, July 26, 2000.

27. Burhanettin Duran, “JDP and Foreign Policy as an Agent of Transformation,” in Hakan Yavuz (ed.), The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Party (Utah: The University of Utah Press, 2006), pp. 281–94.

28. Ali Çarkoğlu and Ahmet Sözen, “The Turkish Cypriot General Elections of December 2003: Setting the Stage for Resolving the Cyprus Conflict?” Southern European Society and Politics, Vol. 9, No. 3 (2004), pp. 122–36.

29. “Turkey says signing of EU accord does not mean recognition of Cyprus”, EU Business, 29 July 2005; “Hurdle for Turkey talks cleared”, EU Observer, 22 September 2005.

30. Kirsty Hughes, Turkey and the EU: Four Scenarios from Train Crash to Full Steam Ahead (Friends of Europe, September 2006), www.friendsofeurope.org.

31. Bahar Rumelili, “Transforming Conflicts on EU Borders: The Case of Greek–Turkish Relations,” Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2007), pp. 105–26.

32. See a series of excellent articles dealing with the various aspects of political change that the EU enlargement creates in the accession countries: M. Cremona, The Enlargement of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

33. Kıvanç Ulusoy, “The Europeanization of Turkey and Its Impact on the Cyprus Problem,” Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Vol. 10, No. 3 (2008), pp. 309–29.

34. Kıvanç Ulusoy, “Turkey and the EU: Democratization, Civil‐Military Relations, and the Cyprus Issue”, Insight Turkey, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2008), pp. 51–76.

35. “Giscard Lends Weight to Plan for Turkey’s Partnership with the EU,” Financial Times, November 25, 2004; “Merkel Calls for Rethink of Turkey’s EU membership,” Financial Times, June 3, 2005; “Austria Opposes Turkey’s EU Push,” Financial Times, July 18, 2005.

36. For the AKP government’s ten‐point action plan on Cyprus, see “Dışişleri Bakanı Gül Kıbrıs Eylem Planı’nı açıkladı, 24 January 2006,” [Foreign Minister Gül Declared Action Plan on Cyprus], www. mfa.gov.tr.

37. İhsan Dagi, “Why There Will Be No Solution in Cyprus,” Today’s Zaman, May 19, 2008.

38. See in particular two surveys subsequently done in 2008 and 2009, Erol Kaymak, Alexandros Lordos and Nathalie Tocci, Building Confidence in Peace: Public Opinion and the Cyprus Peace Process (Brussels: CEPS, 2008); Alexandros Lordos, Erol Kaymak and Nathalie Tocci, A People’s Peace in Cyprus: Testing Public Opinion on the Options For a Comprehensive Settlement (Brussels: CEPS, 2009).

39. For this final assessment, the author mainly relies on a series of interviews that he conducted between January and December 2008 with the leading figures from politics, economy, academia, and media in Turkey.