Greek Cypriots Quash Plan to Reunify Island

Ignoring international pressure, Greek Cypriots voted by a huge margin Saturday to kill a U.N. plan that would have united their war-divided island, and instead chose to send a fragmented nation -- without its Turkish Cypriot citizens -- into the European Union.

Turkish Cypriots in the breakaway northern third of the country voted in favor of the plan. However, both sides, voting Saturday in parallel referendums, had to approve the United Nations solution for it to take effect.

U.S. and EU officials said they regretted the result. Washington and the economic bloc had pledged millions of dollars to help reunite Cyprus after three decades of division.

“A unique opportunity to bring about a solution to the long-lasting Cyprus issue has been missed,” the EU’s executive body said in a statement.

Racked by ethnic violence throughout the 1960s, Cyprus has been split since Turkey invaded and occupied the north in 1974, after an Athens-backed coup by Greek Cypriot military officers who supported a union with Greece. An estimated 200,000 Greek Cypriots fled their homes to the south, while Turkey settled about 50,000 additional Turks in the north.

Cypriots on both sides of the line went to voting stations Saturday under sunny skies and heavy police guard -- and amid scattered incidents of intimidation and threats, mostly by those opposing the U.N. plan.

Greek Cypriots interviewed said they voted no to signal their opposition to Turkey. Turkey aspires to be the EU’s first Muslim member and has been told that if it helps resolve the Cyprus conflict, it can apply to join.

“Turkey cannot be trusted to behave like a European partner,” Lucas Constantinou, a Greek Cypriot in Nicosia, said after he voted. “We cannot trust Turkey without more safeguards.”

Greek Cypriots opposed the plan in large numbers because it does not allow all Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes in the north even though it permits Turkish settlers to remain on the island, albeit not necessarily in the homes they moved into 30 years ago. The Turkish army, which maintains about 30,000 troops in the north, would be allowed to keep a scaled-down troop presence -- another sticking point for many Greek Cypriots.

The plan, drafted through years of arduous negotiation led personally by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also envisioned creating a loose federal government that would oversee two largely autonomous ethnic-based states.

In Pile, the only ethnically mixed village in Cyprus, which straddles the U.N.-controlled buffer zone dividing the island, both Turkish and Greek Cypriots said they opposed the plan because the bi-state solution would cement the division of the two communities.

“I have been living here for years with the Greeks,” restaurateur Mustafa Guneysoy said. “We share our food, intermarry, no problem. Why should we continue to live separately?”

About 76% of Greek Cypriots who voted cast “no” ballots, while about 65% of Turkish Cypriots voted yes. Turnout was high.

Many Turkish Cypriots supported the U.N. solution because they saw unity and EU entry as a way to greater prosperity and an end to their isolation. Only Turkey recognizes the north as a separate state, and an embargo has been in place for years.

The U.S. and U.N. had been pushing for a solution to the Cyprus conflict in time for the May 1 enlargement of the EU, when Cyprus and nine other countries will accede. The international community had hoped to prevent this problem from spilling over the continental bloc.

Many Greek Cypriots thought that they had nothing to lose: They could reject the plan and still be allowed into the EU, while leaving behind their poorer Turkish Cypriot brethren.

Greek Cypriots could be spoilers without punishment because when the EU initially extended the invitation to join nearly a decade ago, Turkey blocked Cypriot reunification. EU officials at the time argued that the Greek Cypriots should not be punished because of Turkey’s rejectionist actions.

“It’s a very contradictory situation that the side that says yes to the plan is left out of the EU, while the side that says no is allowed to join,” Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot prime minister who supported reunification, said at a news conference after the vote. “The EU will need to address the issue.”

U.S. and European officials said efforts would be undertaken to improve the Turkish Cypriot economy and otherwise reward the north for its cooperation. A U.S. official Saturday reiterated Washington’s policy that the Turkish Cypriots “will not be left out in the cold.” The Greek Cypriot president, Tassos Papadopoulos, said his people want reunification and a solution to the conflict, just not this solution.

“The only real beneficiary of this plan would have been Turkey,” said Papadopoulos, who worked against the plan after originally giving EU officials the impression that he supported it. “The result of today’s referendum must act as a catalyst for unification and not as a pretext for further division.”

But the world leaders who worked for the deal did not seem in the mood to give Cyprus another chance. The U.N. announced that it was shutting down its peace envoy’s office on the island.

“We commend all who voted to approve the plan,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

“Failure of the referenda in the Greek Cypriot community is a setback to the hopes of those on the island who voted for the settlement and to the international community.”

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Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Rome contributed to this report.