Worried? We should be

IF THE strength of Cyprus’ diplomatic response to the German Bundestag resolution urging an end to the isolation of the north is a sign that the government is worried, we can seek some scraps of comfort, because it should be. Yes, of course, the resolution is not binding on the German government. Yet our leaders would be na?ve to dismiss it as a parliamentary whim.

As if to underline the point, Germany’s Deputy Foreign Minister, who was present at the debate, made it clear that his government shared the Bundestag’s views on the need to upgrade the north, speaking of a “coincidence of opinions” between government and Parliament.

For years and years, we have ignored realpolitik to base our struggle on the legality of our position. For years, we have succeeded because, for all its machinations, the international community acknowledged that we had been hard done by.

Today, rightly or wrongly, the international community is beginning to think that the Turkish Cypriots have got a raw deal, and we are being blamed.But if we’re right, why should we be worried? Because right and wrong are utterly subjective and the international community will not hesitate to tear up the rulebooks if it feels so inclined.

Let’s not look far: fed up with the failure of Serbs and Albanians to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the status of Kosovo, the international community has come up with its own solution, the Ahtisaari plan, establishing Kosovo's independence under EU supervision.

Legally, Kosovo is part of Serbia, yet Belgrade’s total opposition to the plan is simply being ignored. Russian solidarity for Serbia may be holding up the plan’s adoption by the UN Security Council, but the fact is that Kosovo will be independent, sooner rather than later.

Going further back, was it not Germany’s unilateral recognition of secessionist Croatia and Slovenia that sounded the bloody death knell for the former Yugoslavia? Again, there was no referendum in Serbia to ask them what they thought of the idea, it simply happened.This is the brutal reality of power politics and it’s time that we woke up to it.

This is not the Islamic conference standing up for its Turkish brethren, this is Germany, one of the most powerful countries in the world, one of our partners in the European Union and a country that has openly opposed Turkey’s EU accession hopes.

And what are we doing? Raising the barricades and issuing veiled threats when we should be engaging, explaining, desperately trying to rescue our precarious position.

Serbia too was convinced that it was right: it huffed and puffed and denounced imperialist conspiracies. Effectively, it excluded itself from the debate on its own future. We should beware of following its example.