SOUTH'S TURKISH CYPRIOTS CITE DISCRIMINATION, NEEDS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NICOSIA 000521 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, IO/UNP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV CY TU SUBJECT: SOUTH'S TURKISH CYPRIOTS CITE DISCRIMINATION, NEEDS REF: A. 06 NICOSIA 2051 ¶B. NICOSIA 151 ¶C. NICOSIA 52 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Perhaps 1500 Turkish Cypriots reside in the government-controlled areas of Cyprus. Like the enclaved Greek Cypriots of the Karpass peninsula, the T/C community, centered in second-city Limassol, endures isolation and depends heavily on Republic of Cyprus handouts for its existence. And again like the enclaved G/Cs, schooling issues dominate Turkish Cypriots' demands, namely, the request for a separate T/C school that would mirror the Greek Cypriot facility in Dipkarpaz/Rizokarpasso. Hoping to sway international opinion in the May run-up to a highly-anticipated RoC Supreme Court ruling on the need for such a school, the Foreign Ministry touted the successes of a G/C elementary renovated to serve a multicultural Limassol neighborhood. T/C parents there no longer sought a segregated facility for their children, the MFA claimed, preferring instead to immerse them in the majority Greek Cypriot community. ¶2. (SBU) Embassy staff accepted the headmaster's invitation and visited Ayios Antonios Elementary School three weeks later, finding a modern, well-equipped institution, committed teachers, and bright, happy children who seemingly mixed well. A prominent T/C community leader disputed the "all's fine" message coming from the MFA and headmaster, however. Turkish Cypriot parents of any means took the RoC's education stipends and sent their children to private, English-instruction facilities; only the poorest and most marginalized T/Cs, vulnerable to Greek Cypriot pressure, utilized Ayios Antonios. Limassol's T/Cs were second-class citizens, he lamented, victims of discrimination and neglect. Subsequent Embassy conversations with UNFICYP experts lent credence to the community leader's argument, at least as regards to the school issue. Political stubbornness, they claimed, not marginal demand, underpinned the RoC's decision not to establish a separate facility for T/C youth. END SUMMARY. -------------- Bigger Numbers, Lower Profile -------------- ¶3. (U) Turkish Cypriots who refused to participate in the population exchanges following the conflict of 1974 -- and their descendants -- comprise part of the government-controlled area's T/C population, which also includes newcomers who moved south after the liberalization of crossing procedures in 2003. Demographers estimate they number between 800 and 1500; the last official count (2003) revealed a population of 1317, roughly three times that of the enclaved Greek Cypriots in Karpass. UNFICYP claims 98 percent are Roma. Cyprus's 1960 constitution allowed the island's minority groups to self-identify with either of the larger Cypriot communities, and primarily for linguistic reasons, the Roma checked the T/C box. Similar to Gypsies worldwide, they were historically migratory, predominantly poor, and often targets of discrimination and derision. Besides Limassol, communities of Turkish Cypriots exist in Paphos and Larnaca. ¶4. (SBU) While the "TRNC" occasionally has protested the southern T/Cs' lot and attempted to direct international attention their way, the community's profile pales next to that of the Karpass Greeks. Numerous factors explain the differing treatment, the best the text of the "Vienna III" agreement, which island leaders Archbishop Makarios and Rauf Denktash inked in 1975. In it, Turkish Cypriots "at present in the South of the Island will be allowed, if they want to do so, to proceed North...with the assistance of UNFICYP." With Denktash long a proponent of an ethnically bi-zonal Cyprus, neither community leaders nor the UN thought much of sustaining a T/C presence in the south. Conversely, Vienna III stipulated that Greek Cypriots "at present in the North of the Island are free to stay and they will be given every help to lead a normal life, including facilities for education and the practice of their religion." Consistent with their preference for a unitary state, Greek Cypriots have viewed the enclaved as standard-bearers of Hellenism in the "occupied" areas. ¶5. (SBU) To the present, United Nations troops and officials ferry supplies to the 300-odd, mostly aged Greek Cypriots inhabiting four isolated villages in Karpass, settle petty disputes, even do residents' banking, this despite the 2003 opening of the Buffer Zone crossings that made visitation for relatives in the south routine. Further, UN pressure and NICOSIA 00000521 002 OF 004 liaison was instrumental in the Turkish Cypriot "government's" decision to allow a G/C school in Rizokarpasso to open and expand. UN efforts to assist the T/C community seems stark in comparison. It opened an office in Limassol in 1996 to liaise with RoC officials, mainly on human rights and welfare/social services issues, but closed it three years later, citing underutilization. Currently, officers from the Civil Affairs office periodically consult T/C leaders in Limassol and make occasional home visits. ¶6. (SBU) Neither the "TRNC" nor the UN has given up hope of securing a separate school for Turkish Cypriot youth, roughly modeled after the Rizokarpasso facility. As pressure points, UNFICYP officers have cited the RoC's obligation under international law to provide education in the mother tongue, as well as the government's numerous written promises to open the school. They are monitoring anxiously a court case which the Turkish Cypriot teachers union KTOS filed that demands the government take action (Note: after another in a series of RoC-requested adjournments filed June 7, the Supreme Court will hear the case September 5.) -------------- Government on the Offensive -------------- ¶7. (U) Hoping to influence opinions amongst the international community, the Foreign Ministry May 4 conducted a well-attended diplomatic corps briefing regarding the government's efforts to provide a quality education to Turkish Cypriots residing in the south. Erato Marcoullis, head of the Cyprus Question division and former ambassador to the United States, opened the presentation by claiming the RoC remained fully attuned to T/Cs' educational needs. As a result of a 2005 Council of Ministers decision allowing the creation of a separate school for Turkish Cypriots, the MFA and Education Ministry had pitched this possibility to T/C parents in Limassol. The latter, however, preferred immersion to isolation. "If we're going to be living with Greek Cypriots, we should be studying with them, too," one parent allegedly had reasoned. Should T/C opinion eventually change, the government remained open to opening a separate facility, Marcoullis asserted. ¶8. (U) Ayios Antonios Elementary School Headmaster Loukas Philippou next took the mike. Until recently, his school, located in a low-income, ethnically-mixed neighborhood west of downtown Limassol, suffered the same problems of inner-city schools in western Europe and the United States: declining enrollment and test scores, increasing truancy and disciplinary problems, and crumbling infrastructure. Racial/ethnic friction was exacerbating the negative climate, with the school's Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Roma, and Pontian Greek students often clashing. Hoping to save the school and make it a magnet for Limassol's redevelopment, the Education Ministry, in coordination with the city, civil society, and parents' groups, succeeded in including Ayios Antonios in a four-school pilot program targeting the ills above. Keys to the effort included hiring additional teachers (two Turkish-speaking) and permanent social workers, refurbishing the building, and cracking down on anti-social behavior. Philippou proudly highlighted a Commonwealth award for excellence that Ayios Antonios had won in 2006. ¶9. (U) In the Q and A session that followed, the headmaster revealed that 53 of 151 students were Turkish Cypriot (all but two Roma). Racial and ethnic tensions were things of the past, he boasted. Not only were T/C parents in the Ayios Antonios district thrilled with the school; Turkish Cypriots in other neighborhoods were transferring their kids from local facilities. No longer was there demand in Limassol for a separate education for Turkish Cypriot youth. Concluding, he invited those assembled to come see Ayios Antonios for themselves. -------------- Shiny, Happy People -------------- ¶10. (SBU) One diplomat captured the mood in the MFA briefing room perfectly: "I know propaganda when I see it." In response, Emboffs May 23 traveled south to visit the school, meet Turkish Cypriot leaders, and discuss minority relations with the Limassol mayor. Ayios Antonios Elementary, located in the historical Turkish quarter, impressed immediately with its orderliness and freshly-scrubbed appearance. Before a follow-on briefing and subsequent tour of the school, the student body treated its Embassy visitors to a bilingual song-and-dance performance, performing numbers they had NICOSIA 00000521 003 OF 004 recorded for a limited-distribution CD. All appeared enthused with the program and comfortable around students of other backgrounds. ¶11. (SBU) With the Commonwealth award and other commemorations displayed proudly on office walls, Philippou elaborated upon measures taken to serve the T/C community. The additional 100,000 CYP (USD 234,000) in government funding had allowed the hiring of two Turkish Cypriot teachers, a bilingual social worker, infrastructure updates, and purchase of Turkish-language educational materials (sourced from Turkey or Greece's Western Thrace, not from northern Cyprus.) The school even covered taxi fares for those T/C students hailing from outside Ayios Antonios's district. Turkish Cypriot children were well-integrated into the student body, and their parents now participated in its PTA-equivalent. Responding to our inquiry, Philippou asserted that neither T/C students nor parents had voiced displeasure with the school-wide curriculum and textbooks, which many observers consider overly nationalistic (Ref B). ¶12. (SBU) Ayios Antonios's two Turkish Cypriot teachers lived in the T/C-administered area and transited the Buffer Zone twice per day. Both appeared fresh out of college and happy with the two-year assignment. Class sizes were small -- approximately eight students per -- with T/C children spending 8-10 hours each week receiving community-specific instruction. (Note: Emboffs made two observations that called into question Philippou's assertions of seamless inter-communal integration. On each child's desk were Education Ministry-supplied notebooks depicting northern Cyprus landmarks and carrying the politically-charged caption "I Won't Forget." And on a prominently-displayed children's drawing of many nations' flags, vandals had scraped off the Turkish and Pakistani banners, the only two carrying the Muslim crescent-and-star emblems.) -------------- Elder Throws Cold Water on Co-existence Image -------------- ¶13. (SBU) Restaurateur Ayhan Mehmet, self-described as the only Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur in Limassol, dismissed claims that the Ayios Antonios experience satisfied T/C parents' educational demands. Most "authentic" Turkish Cypriots -- in his estimation, 10 percent of the Limassol community, the remainder being Roma -- utilized the RoC scholastic stipend to send their children to the American Academy or English School. Education Ministry staff had retooled the "G/C" elementary solely to satisfy UN and international community demands, not to provide Turkish Cypriots quality learning. Roma parents had sent their kids to Ayios Antonios only after the police threatened to cut off RoC welfare benefits, on which 99 percent of them survive. Ayhan reserved some blame for the current situation for the "TRNC" as well; around 1999, "then-President" Rauf Denktash had refused to appoint teachers to staff a UN-arranged separate facility. ¶14. (SBU) A few hours of Turkish language instructions hardly constituted education in the native tongue, nor did it meet the children's needs, retorted Angelos Kyriakoudes, a Turkish-speaking Greek Cypriot teacher and ally of the T/C community. Kyriakoudes, who had had to change schools twice owing to harassment for his pro-T/C opinions, contrasted Ayios Antonios with the Greek Cypriot school in Rizokarpasso "There, G/C kids have their own building, teachers, books from the south -- everything." Both men doubted the government's willingness ever to open a school for Turkish Cypriots, regardless of the Council of Ministers decision and Foreign Ministry's commitment. ¶15. (SBU) Life for Turkish Cypriots outside the school disappointed as well, with community members facing daily hassles. As an example, Ayhan recounted how he had sought for years to acquire a license for his restaurant, the only T/C-owned business in the area. Local authorities continued to spring new demands, however, from increased parking availability to mandatory facade changes. Lacking funds for either, he had operated unlicensed for years. The Greek Cypriot-owned tavern across the street, a near-mirror of his own, had obtained its licenses seemingly without completing mandated upgrades. Ayhan lacked proof that his ethnicity underpinned his problems with the municipality, but in his opinion discrimination was to blame. -------------- Unbiased Judge Tilts T/Cs' Way -------------- NICOSIA 00000521 004 OF 004 ¶16. (SBU) Ayhan Mehmet seemed a "straight-shooter" rightly concerned about poor conditions in the Turkish Cypriot community, ventured UNFICYP Civil Affairs officer Sally Anne Corcoran, responsible for liaison with the southern T/Cs. His accounts of benefits cutoff threats directed toward Roma in Limassol tracked with information UNFICYP had gleaned in its home visits, and she had no reason to doubt his contention that he and fellow T/Cs faced regular discrimination. Corcoran's opinions on the Cypriot Foreign and Education Ministries rang far more negatively. Despite paying lip service to its commitment to provide a separate school option, the RoC had fought the measure tooth-and-nail. She singled out recently-deceased Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades for criticism, claiming that the much-loved (in the G/C community, at least),avuncular Georgiades repeatedly erected roadblocks to the school's opening. He also had fought the adoption of more-balanced history textbooks for middle and high school students in the government-controlled areas. The actions were indicative of a harder line toward Turkish Cypriots that the current administration held, Corcoran continued. ¶17. (SBU) Ayios Antonios teachers were committed professionals and its administration had effected positive change for its Turkish-speaking students, she added. Its focus on improving their hygiene was praiseworthy and necessary, given the squalor many inhabited. But the school's efforts did not amount to "providing an education in the mother tongue," she asserted. UNFICYP staff therefore were eagerly monitoring the KTOS-filed lawsuit against the RoC, now adjourned until September. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶18. (SBU) Historical and numerical similarities aside, differences between the south's Turkish Cypriot community and the enclaved G/Cs may exceed commonalities. Greek Cypriots consider their Karpass presence vital to their contention that the Republic of Cyprus constitutes the island's entirety. They constantly raise international awareness of the enclaved's lot and fund their continued existence generously. In contrast, "TRNC" officials rarely mention their Limassol and Paphos compatriots and provide them scant financial support. At least three factors explain the differing treatment. The first is financial; the RoC has far greater resources available to succor its northern outpost. Racism against Roma likely also plays a part -- leader Mehmet's distinction between "real" Turkish Cypriots and gypsies diverges little from the prevailing view island-wide. Finally, partition proponent Denktash's primary motivation in demanding a separate state for Turkish Cypriots -- to protect T/Cs from a Greek Cypriot majority bent on genocide or subjugation -- becomes anachronistic should the community in the south thrive. ¶19. (SBU) Thrive they won't, but survive they will. While the enclaved Greek Cypriot population has dwindled due to "emigration" south and the dropping birthrate common to all Cyprus, our admittedly non-scientific observation of the Limassol community showed Turkish-speaking numbers at worst holding steady; they might even grow, should the Roma birthrate remain higher than average and Kurdish refugees continue to arrive in Cyprus. In addition, the RoC derives great utility from a Turkish Cypriot presence in the government-controlled areas. It allows Greek Cypriot leaders to refute claims they seek an ethnically-pure state, and permits them to show off their altruism in providing much of the community with welfare benefits. Despite the "commitment" to multiculturalism, however, we expect no sea-change in regards to demands for a separate school for Turkish Cypriots. The stated reason for the most-recent adjournment of the KTOS lawsuit -- to translate additional documents into Turkish -- seems pure slow-rolling to us. ZIMMERMAN