CYPRUS: INCREASING TURKISH CYPRIOT EURO-SCEPTICISM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NICOSIA 000767

SIPDIS

EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL TU CY
SUBJECT: CYPRUS: INCREASING TURKISH CYPRIOT EURO-SCEPTICISM

Classified By: AMBASSADOR FRANK C. URBANCIC FOR REASONS 1.4 (B)
AND (D)


1. (SBU) Summary: The Turkish Cypriot UBP party, led by its
leader and current "Prime Minister" Dervis Eroglu, are
long-time euro-sceptics. Disappointment with the EU is
growing among Turkish Cypriots who believe the Union has not
kept promises made and that its policy towards Turkey and
Cyprus is deeply influenced, if not managed, by the RoC and
Greece. If Turkey and Turkish Cypriots turn away from the
goal of EU membership, a key impetus to the reunification
talks will be removed. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Turkish Cypriot "Prime Minister" Dervis Eroglu has
frequently indicated to embassy officials that he has a
largely unfavourable view of the European Union. A recent
example of his distrust was seen at the reopening of a church
restored with EU funding. When he was introduced to speak by
the EU presiding official as "Mr." Eroglu, rather than as
"Prime Minister," a clearly upset Eroglu made a speech
demanding the EU (and the Greek Cypriots) accept the
existence of the "TRNC." He later cancelled participation of
15 out of 21 TC participants at a long-planned EU-sponsored
working visit to Prague on the environment. This prompted an
angry letter from the EU stating the "government" did not
understand how the EU works, offended the Czech hosts, wasted
EU resources, and ultimately punished TCs and the Cypriot
environment. We subsequently have been told that Eroglu
referred to the proposed visit to Prague as a "brainwashing
trip."


3. (SBU) The head of the EU Support Office which manages EU
assistance to north Cyprus complains that 7500 Euro-diaries
for schoolchildren are sitting in the storage room of her
office basement because the "government" prevented their
distribution due to the fact that they contain a short
introduction by European Commission President Manuel Barrosso
that includes the word "reunification." Eroglu has therefore
deemed the diaries "propaganda" material and will not allow
their distribution. This reflects the UBP's resistance to a
federal solution to the Cyprus problem. Supporters of a two-
state settlement, the UBP blames the EU for shifting the
balance in the current intra-island talks towards the Greek
Cypriots by accepting them into the EU in 2004, "awarding
Greek Cypriot intransigence and punishing Turkish Cypriot
peace efforts" in the wake of the Annan Plan referendum.


4. (SBU) While Eroglu and his UBP party pay lip service to EU
values and support Turkey's accession process, our
interaction with UBP officials indicate that they hold
different views. They argue that the EU has proven that it
cannot be trusted, it's too "soft and lenient" when it comes
to Greek Cypriots, too "aggressive and dominant" when it
comes to Turkish Cypriots. "After all," they argue, the EU is
-unofficially - a Christian club, and naturally pro-Greek
(anti-Turkish)." They strongly believe that Cyprus and
Greece, as members of the EU, bias the Union against Turkish
interests and therefore cannot be considered an honest
broker.


5. (SBU) The UBP's vision of Europe is shaped by a
traditional, protectionist, Attaturkist view of Turkish
society and Turkey's place in the world that has not been
mitigated by recent changes in Turkish foreign and domestic
policies. Central to the UBP's world view is a somewhat
hostile attitude towards the motherland's" neighbors and a
wary outlook towards Europe and the West in general, embodied
in the old Turkish saying "a Turk has no other friend but
another Turk." As an example, Eroglu has told us that during
the run-up to the referendum on the Annan Plan, the EU and US
were "deviously" working to convince Turkish Cypriots into
voting "yes" to the reunification plan. Both then-"president"
Rauf Denktas and Eroglu have attacked the EU and the US for
"showering people with money" to back the allegedly pro-Greek
Cypriot Annan Plan as a means to disenfranchise the Turkish
Cypriot people. He still voices his "fears" regarding yet
another EU/US effort to "deceive" people in a potential new
referendum on a plan Christofias and Talat may devise.


6. (SBU) Comment: Eroglu has shared with Embassy officials on
multiple occasions that he does not believe that the EU will
ever accept Turkey as a member. Given widespread
disappointment with the EU among Turkish Cypriots -a result
of the EU not following through with promises of direct trade
in the wake of the TC "yes" vote for the Annan Plan -Eroglu
scores points with the general public when he demands that
Turkish Cypriot sovereignty be maintained and questions EU
fairness given Cyprus and Greece are both members of a club
from which all Turks are denied a voice. In the run-up to the

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April 2012 presidential elections, UBP will continue to build
on its position as a Euro-sceptic party, securing its base
among relatively less educated, more Turkey-dependent members
of the electorate, and benefiting from the growing
disillusionment with the EU. If more TCs begin to view EU
membership negatively, one of the key drivers for yes voters
in 2004 will be gone. End Comment.


URBANCIC