Dr. Kypros Chrysostomides Believes That Independence is the Normal Situation of States - Cyprus Not Excluded

NICOSIA, Cyprus, September 23, 2019 (Newswire.com) - The following is an open letter from Dr. Kypros Chrysostomides, managing partner of Chrysostomides & Co.​  

In the search for a solution of the Cyprus Problem the respective leaders of the parties in the negotiations should strive for the welfare and the prosperity of the Cypriot people and look after and protect their interests.

This requires our common home to be truly independent – verbal declarations to this effect are just not enough. Its survival and prosperity should not depend on outside factors and its objectives as a state should primarily serve the interests of its legitimate inhabitants.

Consequently, we ought to work together with candour and responsibility so as to remove from any solution plan provisions which would serve interests other than those of the legitimate citizens of this country.

Through the Annan plan, for instance, Turkey secured separatist provisions, strategic and economic benefits and security arrangements that granted it permanent advantages over the whole of Cyprus.

If our real aim is to safeguard the interests of the Cypriot people, any "prerogatives" to third parties are formulae of the past which we must put behind us, especially now that our EU perspective has become a reality.

The International Court of Justice at The Hague has in the past defined “independence” in the Austro-German Customs Union Case, to be the existence: "of a separate state which is not subject to the authority of any other state or group of states … (it is) the normal situation of states, in accordance with international law, and it could also be described as sovereignty (suprema potestas) or external sovereignty, meaning that the state has no other authority over it save that of international law…"

This is exactly what is meant by “independence” also in the relevant United Nations Resolutions on Cyprus.

What is sought is not just to pay lip service to the notion of “independence” but to practically safeguard the State’s independence in particular after the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus as a bizonal-bicommunal federation.

Do our Turkish Cypriot compatriots agree with this position?

Source: Chrysostomides & Co