A CYPRUS SETTLEMENT— Revelations in a Crystal Ball
| Published date | 01 April 1987 |
| Date | 01 April 1987 |
| Author | John Reddaway |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788700900102 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
23
A
CYPRUS
SETTLEMENT—
Revelations
in
a
Crystal
Ball*
JOHN
REDDAWAY
As
WE
enter
the
new
year
of
1989,
it
seems
that
a
settlement
between
Greeks
and
Turks
in
Cyprus
has
now
been
clinched.
In
the
middle
of
1987
the
Security
Council
at
last
decided
that
it
was
futile
to
go
on
hoping
that
the
Greck
and
Turkish
Cypriots
would
ever
be
able
to
negotiate
a
settlement
between
themselves,
even
with
the
good
offices
of
the
UN
Secretary-General.
That
formula,
so
repetitiously
and
self-righteously
asserted in
UN
resolutions
for
so
many
years
past,
had
in
fact
become
a
pretext
for
the
international
community,
and
in
particular
the
Permanent
Embers
of
the
Security
Council,
to
evade
responsibility
for
the
continuing
deadlock.
At
last
the
Security
Council
acknowledged-
as
it
should
have
done
long
before-that
to
go
on
insisting
that
the
Cypriots
should
settle
their
problem
between
themselves
was
not
only
futile
but
also
unreasonable
and
indeed
unfair
to
the
leaders
on
both
sides
in
Cyprus
because
they
simply
did
not
possess
the
power,
in
the
face
of
the
pressures
to
which
they
were
subjected,
to
make
the
necessary
concessions
for
an
agreed
settlement.
They
needed
relief
from
the
onus
of
taking
the
whole
responsibility
on
themselves.
Accordingly,
the
Security
Council
(the
USSR
abstaining
but
not
vetoing
the
resolution)
decided
to
change
the
mission
it
had
entrusted
to
the
Secretary-General
from
one
of
merely
using
his
good
offices
to
promote
a
settlement
to
that
of
mediation
involving
the
preparation
of
the
framework
for
a
comprehensive
settlement
which
the
Council
could
present
to
both
sides
in
Cyprus
as
both
practicable
and
as
fair
as
could
now
be
devised
in
the
light
of
the
events
since
Cyprus
had
become
independent
in
1960.
The
Council
instructed
the
Secretary-General
to
submit
within
four
months
a
framework
which
would
incorporate
the
points
which
he
believed
to
have
been
already
agreed
or
virtually
agreed
in
his
earlier
discussions
with
both
sides
and,
on
the
issues
remaining
unresolved,
such
proposals
as
seemed
to
him
in
the
light
of
all
the
discussions
and
consultations
he
had
had
with
the
Greek
and
Turkish
Cypriot
leaders
to
be
a
reasonable,
practicable
and
fair
compromise
between
the
conflicting
claims of
both
sides.
At
the
end
of
1987
the
Secretary-General
submitted
his
*This
article
is
complementary
to
the
author’s
contribution
in
the
November
1986
issue
of
International
Relations
in
which
he
described
the
history
of
British
policy
in
Cyprus.
In
this
article
he
considers
the
future
of
that
island
and
offers
suggestions
for
a
possible
settlement.
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