Cyprus

Mike Freer Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2014 Westminster Hall

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes)—my immediate neighbour—on securing this debate. I join him in paying tribute to the former hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton, who was a doughty campaigner on behalf of Cyprus, which was among the many issues he took up in the House.

As the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate said, this is a timely debate at a time of great change in the eastern Mediterranean. Although, interestingly, Cyprus did not, as I understand it, play much of a role in the recent Turkish presidential election, the successful candidate, Mr Erdogan, chose the country for his first official visit on being elected President. As the hon. Gentleman indicated, he made some controversial speeches while there, and they have considerable ramifications for the process.

We have recently seen the interesting appointment of a new UN special adviser, Espen Barth Eide from Norway; I wish him every success in bringing the parties together for a successful negotiation. The NATO summit, if nothing else, ranged far and wide. I will return to giving Cyprus greater priority on the international agenda, but the NATO summit was an opportunity that does not seem to have been seized. I regret that Cyprus did not appear much on the agendas of the meetings held there.

We now have in place the infrastructure for a successful negotiation. The two leaders of the communities have met reasonably regularly and the negotiators appointed to do the nuts and bolts of the agreement are in place and working hard. As the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate mentioned, we have the joint declaration. Although it took some time to put together, it is a very good basis for such a negotiation, which could and should take place. A number of innovative procedures have been entered into as part of that infrastructure. I think particularly about the cross meetings, where the negotiator for the Turkish Cypriot side visits Athens and the negotiator for the Greek Cypriot side visits Ankara to update two of the guarantor powers about progress on the negotiations. I understand that the August meeting was cancelled, but a meeting has taken place and I hope that that will be successfully deployed as a mechanism to draw the guarantor powers into the negotiating process, which will be critical if we are to make progress over the coming months. The negotiation is on the basis, as is usual with such negotiations, that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. That is not exceptional or surprising, but we wait to see how things will develop.

Like the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate, I have to say that a shadow hangs over the negotiations. It is a time to reflect that for the past 40 years the island has remained divided and the two communities separated. It is a time for negotiations on that failure and disappointment. Whenever I visit Cyprus, I always go to the immediacy of the green line and Nicosia, the only divided city in Europe. In the immediate vicinity of the green line, Nicosia can be seen, frozen in aspic, as it was in 1963. That is a constant reminder that we have failed Nicosia, Cyprus and the Cypriot people. It reaffirms the need for us to be hard-headed, and while we are not optimistic, we must maintain a positive attitude towards the negotiations.

Of course, it was not always that way. In 1977, the then President Makarios was able to enter into a high-level agreement that set a framework, which was built upon in 1979. In the 1980s, Boutros Boutros-Ghali put more detail on that framework, including political equality, and we then had the Annan proposals, I to V, and the referendums. There has been plenty of negotiation, but we have failed to reach agreement. To echo the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate, we need greater engagement from the international community.

The United Kingdom has a unique role to play in that, because we have a long, historical connection with Cyprus stretching back to the 1870s when it became part of the British empire. We were the main international party to the negotiations of the London and Zurich agreements in 1960 that set the framework for the independence of Cyprus, and we were a guarantor power in the settlement. The UK has a large Cypriot community, many of whom live in the constituencies of Members present today, and Cyprus has a large, but often forgotten, community of UK citizens. The connections between our two countries are strong, so Britain has a unique responsibility.

My constituents constantly remind me that we must do more to seize the opportunities of the negotiation process and to involve the international community. Now may not be the most opportune moment to grab the international community’s attention, however. Problems in Iraq and Syria, which are continuing to inflame the situation in the middle east, and in Afghanistan were foremost in concerns at the NATO summit, and if we add to that the developing situation in Ukraine, there is a great deal for the international community to deal with.

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

I apologise for being late; I was detained on a Delegated Legislation Committee. On Ukraine, does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is rather unusual that the European Union seems exercised about Ukraine being occupied and divided by a military power while being oddly silent and acquiescent to the continuing occupation and division of Cyprus?

[Mr Love]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman and would add that Cyprus is a full member of the European Union and should therefore get priority over non-member states. It is a constant battle to remind the European Union of its responsibilities. It took Cyprus into the European Union, hoping that it would be reunified. That has not happened, and engaging in the process and finding a solution must be a priority for the EU.

Returning to the role that Britain could play, although I recognise the difficult international situation in the middle east, Ukraine and other parts of the world, I ask the Minister to re-energise international involvement in Cyprus and to do whatever the United Kingdom can do. The international community looks up to the UK in its role in Cyprus, so we must do more to engage the international community.

Of course, the international involvement situation is not all negative. Some months ago, Vice-President Joe Biden, who is the first senior US official to visit the island since Vice-President Lyndon Johnson in 1963, travelled to Cyprus. The United States is re-engaging with the negotiation process and sees a successful conclusion as a priority. Joe Biden seems to have a direct interest not only in Cyprus but in the eastern Mediterranean and seems acutely aware, as the entire international community should be, of the importance of stability in the region not only because of the discovery of oil, but because of the current frictions that have resulted from the division of Cyprus.

On the negotiating process, the meetings have been frequent but, sadly, progress has been disappointing and is going at a glacial pace. It is particularly disappointing, as mentioned by the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate, that the confidence-building measures that it was hoped would accelerate the process have not met with the approval of both communities. It is important that we stress the need for such measures in order to boost the prospects of finding an overall settlement. There are some positives, but it is mainly negative, so I would like briefly to discuss some of the measures.

Missing persons have been a critical issue since the start of the dissolution of the two communities in Cyprus in 1963 and going on to 1967 and 1974. As has been mentioned, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus comes to Parliament every year to remind us that they still do not know what happened to their relatives. Closure is a luxury that has not been afforded to them. Work on this is vital and must involve both communities to bring them together. Successes have been achieved and a number of remains have been returned to families, but there appear to be two main difficulties on which I ask the Minister to focus. The first is adequate funding for activities to push the process forward and the second is access to parts of Cyprus that are currently off limits, but where it may be possible to exhume the remains of those missing following previous conflicts. It is the most successful of the joint projects and must be given some priority. I hope that the Minister can confirm that.

The Famagusta initiative has been mentioned, so I will just say that it has the backing not only of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, but also the Turkish-Cypriot city of Famagusta itself. Bringing those two together, it should be possible to push the initiative forward, to return Famagusta to international control and to take forward what has been the major confidence-building measure that has not succeeded so far. If we can put that in place, it should be possible for the negotiating process to get under way.

Finally, religious and cultural heritage has been mentioned. There have been two successes. In particular, we have succeeded in bringing about the refurbishment of the Apostolos Andreas monastery, which is on the tip of the Karpas—well into Turkish Cypriot territory. As I understand it, that process has now started.

Confidence-building measures could make such a difference to the negotiating process, but there are some negatives as well. President Erdogan’s speech in Cyprus was, to say the least, disappointing. It set back the negotiating process. It starts from a position that, even under Annan, was not taken by either of the two communities. I hope that President Erdogan and the Turkish Cypriot community will reflect on the need to reach a compromise on all the issues that are outstanding. If they do so, then, after 40 years of division and separation, we can reunite Cyprus as an island and reduce tensions in that part of the world. I hope that, with oil, gas and the other benefits coming on stream, we can look forward to a bright economic and political future not only for the island, but for the eastern Mediterranean.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes) on securing the debate. I want to focus on the missing people, but first may I reiterate to my hon. Friend the Minister that the Foreign Office needs to be as vocal about Cyprus as it has been about Ukraine? As the hon. Member for Edmonton (Mr Love) said, Cyprus is a fully fledged ally and a member of the European Union that we are hanging out to dry.

To focus on the missing, 1,500 people are still unaccounted for—a subject that I have raised many times. They may be missing, but they are not forgotten. That is a message that the House has to send out. The families have a right to know what happened, whether their relatives are dead and, if so, where their graves are to be found. If those people are dead, why can the location of their remains not be disclosed and their remains returned? What about those who were relocated to Turkey? Might they still be alive, or imprisoned? Might they be dead and, if so, where are they buried?

I have expressed concern before about the missing children, such as Christaki Georghiou, the brother of Mrs Hatjoullis, a constituent of mine. He disappeared at the age of five in 1974. Recent newspapers reports suggest that he might still be alive and working in Ankara, but the Turkish authorities refuse to answer letters or to give even a scrap of information. How many other children might have been placed with Turkish families and still be alive in mainland Turkey?

The tragedy of missing persons is a humanitarian problem with implications for human rights and international humanitarian law. The Cypriot Government comply with efforts to identify the missing on both sides, and it is time that Turkey followed suit. The organisations involved in locating and identifying the missing should have full access to the archives of all organisations, both civilian and military. The right of family members to know the fate of their missing relatives, including their whereabouts and the circumstances and causes of their disappearance, is a humanitarian matter. The obligation to carry out an effective investigation into the circumstances is required by international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

When focusing on the humanitarian dimension of missing persons in armed conflicts, it is necessary to bear in mind that the cases of missing persons can sometimes constitute criminal offences, including war. Perhaps that is why Turkey is dragging its feet. The lack of an investigation by Turkey into the fate of those who went missing has condemned relatives to live in a prolonged state of acute anxiety. Time has not lessened that anxiety, and any Member who has seen the relatives of the missing holding vigil outside this place or, for those of us who have visited the green line, in Cyprus know the pain and anxiety that the families still have—it is still vivid to them. The families simply want to know what has happened; they want to be able to grieve and to lay their relatives to rest.

Finally, I join my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate and the hon. Member for Edmonton in asking the Foreign Office if it will continue to apply pressure on Turkey to open up all the sites that are now restricted and, on a perhaps easier note for the Minister, to help the missing persons commission to fund the latest equipment that could be used to find the remains of people. Those are two quite simple asks, and I hope that the Minister will comply. I finish by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate again on securing the debate.