G/C ENCLAVED IN KARPAS ARE ENDURING, BUT DWINDLING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NICOSIA 000559 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/16/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL CY TU ECON SUBJECT: G/C ENCLAVED IN KARPAS ARE ENDURING, BUT DWINDLING REF: 06 NICOSIA 2051 1.(C) SUMMARY: The aging G/C enclaved populations of Leonarisso (Ziyamet) and Agias Trias (Sipahi) are getting by on GoC aid and UNFICYP outreach, but face loneliness and slowly dwindling numbers, as EmbOffs learned during a June 26 visit to the Karpas region of North Cyprus as part of a UNFICYP home visit. Though conditions have changed little since our last visit in December 2006 visit (reftel),the G/C population dwindles, with just a single Greek Cypriot living permanently in Leonarisso, down from four in 2006. Questions of inheritance--i.e., whether the enclaved can pass on their property to their non-resident relatives--also weigh on the G/C population. For his part, the Turkish settler mayor of Rizokarpasso (Dipkarpaz) appears to enjoy a stable relationship with the enclaved that is nevertheless punctuated by minor frictions. End Summary. -------------- Background -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Karpas region, a peninsula jutting out of the island's northeast corner, was until 1974 inhabited mostly--but not exclusively--by Greek Cypriots. The majority of G/Cs left either directly in the wake of the 1974 conflict or after the August 1975 Vienna III accords, which provided for a voluntary population transfer, with G/Cs going south and T/Cs moving north. Now, 300 G/Cs or fewer, known as "the enclaved," remain, residing in three villages: Leonarisso, Agias Trias, and Rizokarpasso. The vast majority of the Karpas population consists of a mix of Turkish settlers and T/Cs who fled villages in the south and were relocated to Karpas. Former T/C leader Rauf Denktash did his best to force out the G/Cs, denying them advanced schooling and interfering with religious practice. Since coming to power in 2003, first as "PM," then as T/C leader, Mehmet Ali Talat has taken a more enlightened approach, including helping to reopen the Greek-language high school in Rizokarpasso. Nevertheless, the G/C presence is tenuous in the poverty-stricken Karpas, and many--especially the elderly--depend on GoC-supplied and UN-delivered weekly handouts. -------------- Last G/C in Leonarisso: &When you are alone, you die every day8 -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Leonarisso has just one full-time G/C resident left, Panayiota Kanaka, who was determined to stay in her shabby two-room house despite solitude and poverty. Per reftel, there were four G/Cs in Leonarisso in 2006; since then, one has died, and two live mainly in the South. Kanaka told us that "everybody dies once, but when you are alone, you die every day." We were unable to ascertain, either from her, from accompanying UNCIVPOL officers, or from a T/C policeman who was with us at all meetings with the enclaved, why her house was so ramshackle despite RoC aid. An Italian UNCIVPOL officer told us that it might be T/C obstructionism, while the T/C policeman claimed that in other villages the enclaved had improved their homes. We could confirm neither version. ¶4. (C) Kanaka will not move, she says, because her family has lived there for generations, she loves the land and she "could never live anywhere else." Furthermore, she voiced anger that in a future settlement the return of G/Cs might be limited in the Turkish Cypriot constituent state. She voiced anger that foreigners were free to buy property where they wanted to, just not G/Cs. In 2006, Kanaka had complained about access to and the locking of the local Greek Orthodox church, which had suffered vandalism. The Finnish and Swedish ambassadors recently tried to intervene with local authorities, according to UNFICYP police officers, but the issue is still not fully resolved. Kanaka claimed that the village mukhtar keeps the key and often makes excuses not to release it to her. -------------- In Ayias Trias, an aging community endures for now -------------- ¶5. (C) Savvas Liasi, spokesperson for the 75-odd G/Cs enclaved in Agias Trias, lives in decent comfort on his family,s 15-hectare property, but the community itself struggles with age and attrition. Liasi said interactions with T/C neighbors were civil and cooperative, and he even worked out an arrangement with a T/C neighbor to work his olive grove. Until recently, the priest for Rizokarpasso provided biweekly services for Agias Trias, but Liasi said a priest from Larnaca would serve Agias Trias permanently if a replacement for him can be found. Permission for the additional priest took some time to be granted, as Liasi and his wife told us in 2006 that their request had not yet been NICOSIA 00000559 002 OF 002 answered. Though a few G/C youths still live in Agias Trias, the population is overwhelmingly elderly, and Liasi said someone leaves for the south or passes away almost every week. Liasi,s own children are gone -- his only son went missing in the events of 1974, and his daughter lives in the Netherlands. He feared the T/C authorities would take his property instead of letting him bequeath it to his non-resident daughter. (Note: The 2001 ECHR decision, Cyprus v. Turkey, found that authorities in the north did not recognize the inheritance rights of G/C relatives of the enclaved, nor did they allow G/Cs from enclaves who took up permanent residence in the south to continue to enjoy their property rights. End Note.) -------------- Rizokarpasso Turkish Settler mayor gets along with G/C enclaved, but not without minor tensions -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Rizokarpasso's right-wing National Unity Party (UBP) mayor, Mehmet Demirci, himself a settler from the Black Sea region of Turkey who came to the island as a boy, reported a largely non-confrontational relationship with the enclaved in his region, interrupted at times, however, by minor squabbling. In February Demirci had complained to EmbOffs that the G/Cs were not paying for the water the town provided them, ostensibly, he claimed, because they did not want to recognize his authority. He claims that now they are paying for water, but still refuse to pay property taxes. In July, the Mayor, apparently without the approval of central T/C authorities, started to charge a one euro entrance fee to the Apostolos Andreas Monastery, a working Greek Orthodox Church outside of Rizokarpasso. ¶7. (SBU) Demirci also has hopes for developing Karpas's untamed natural beauty -- if only authorities would pay attention. He had a plan to build some small, low-impact bungalows, but UNOPS rejected the plan. Demirci said he respects the environment of the Karpas, and expressed the importance of balancing town development with keeping nature unspoiled. He complained that the "TRNC" central government does not give him enough help or attention in development issues, or, for that matter, in any other area. -------------- An &Oasis8 of apparent Kurdish-Turkish civility at Karpas restaurant -------------- ¶8. (SBU) EmbOffs lunched with Demirci at Oasis, a seaside restaurant/hotel owned and operated by a Turkish Kurdish settler from Mush. Though Rizokarpasso is split politically along ethnic lines, with Kurds largely supporting the leftist, pro-solution Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and Black Sea Turks backing the nationalist UBP, such tension was surprisingly absent between Demirci and the restaurant owner. Instead, the right-wing mayor and the leftist Kurd were cordial, even friendly. Like Demirci, the owner of Oasis lamented his dealings with the bureaucracy; he described a failed effort to obtain credit from UNDP, complaining at the perceived bias of the UN official dealing with him. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) Comment: During their 2006 visit, EmbOffs questioned whether the enclaved population could survive in the long run, and 18 months later, we have the same concern. Death, as well as the poverty of Karpas and better opportunities in the South, erodes the enclaved populations. Furthermore, G/C residents fear the expropriation of their lands after their death. Nevertheless, the GoC and the enclaved themselves seem committed to maintaining the enclaves for symbolic and historical purposes, and a future settlement may allow more G/C in-migration. Elsewhere in the Karpas, the Turkish settler mayor of Dipkarpaz tries his best to develop his town, but suffers his own version of neglect, this time from the T/C central government. End Comment. SCHLICHER