The Government and Politics of Cyprus (review)

Cyprus is a small island strategically located in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to a documented record going back at least 11,000 years, Aphrodite's island has produced a staggering number of studies from archaeology to zoology. During the course of 2010, the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Cyprus is expected to stimulate more publications on the politics and history of this European Union (EU) member. The volume under review is one of the first of these to emerge.

The co-editors are familiar with Cyprus, having lived there and written about various aspects of the Cyprus problem. The volume consists of 11 chapters, five of which, in addition to the introduction, have been written by the co-editors. That is one of the volume's basic weaknesses, as a greater diversity of viewpoints would have added to its credibility. The book includes appendices with electoral data from presidential and parliamentary elections in the Republic of Cyprus, along with electoral returns from occupied Cyprus. There is also a lengthy, but highly selective, bibliography reflecting the ideological preferences of the co-editors.

In the introduction, the editors correctly observe that most publications address the protracted Cyprus problem rather than the fact that the Republic of Cyprus is a successful, functioning democratic state that joined the EU on 1 May 2004. This was shown by the minimal time required for the conclusion of the Cypriot accession talks. In fact, Cyprus would have been an EU member earlier had it not been for the debate within that organization on the "widening" of its membership and pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom to link Cypriot accession to an imposed political solution of the Cyprus problem and to Turkey's EU prospects.

The contributors' focus is on how Cypriot state institutions have evolved over the past 50 years through conflict, external interference, an imposed constitution, invasion and continuing occupation, economic modernization, and EU accession. This is a welcome approach as most analysts forget that, because of the Ottoman past (1570-1878) and the British colonial experience (1878-1960), Cyprus did not experience the forces of political development that shaped modern Western Europe. Rather, in a short time and under adverse circumstances, Cyprus developed into a successful European democracy.

In their introduction and analytical contributions, the editors betray their ideological biases by the symbolic use of language and various code words whose meaning may be lost to those unfamiliar with the Cyprus problem. For example, while presenting the Turkish/Turkish Cypriot view of the Republic of Cyprus, they conclude that "for the purposes of this book the Republic of Cyprus is considered still to be a valid entity and the government and politics of this entity are presented here" (p. 13 [italics added]). This "entity" is an internationally recognized sovereign European state that Turkey, the United States, and some allied countries have repeatedly tried to subvert and dismantle. That process started with the 1964 "Acheson Plan" and culminated in 2004 with an Anglo-American plan promoted by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The failure of that plan disappointed a minority of Greek Cypriots, most Turks, and their allies. The fact remains that the Republic of Cyprus is not an abstraction likely to be invalidated in the near future. The co-editors, by their wording and "definitional clarifications" (pp. 12-13), imply something different and indirectly equate the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus with the illegal entity set up by the Turkish army in occupied Cyprus. UN Security Council resolution 541 of 15 November 1983 declares that entity to be legally invalid and calls on all nations not to recognize any other state than the Republic of Cyprus. The Cypriot accession to the EU was one more affirmation of that fact.

Three of the 11 chapters of this book are worth reading. These include Chapter Four by Christophoros Christoforou on the evolution of Greek Cypriot politics, Chapter Seven by Giorgos Charalambous...