Cyprus failure fuels pessimism

By Tabitha Morgan
BBC correspondent in Nicosia

The plan has ignited strong passions for and against

It was billed as a last-ditch attempt to reach a deal on the future of Cyprus, and it looks very much as if it has failed.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's efforts to get both sides to agree to a deal that would see a united Cyprus joining the European Union have reached what the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, called an "impasse".

And, unsurprisingly, he pointed the finger of blame at his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Rauf Denktash.

It was hoped that an agreement would help end the division of the island that followed Turkey's invasion of the north nearly 30 years ago.

Mr Denktash has been openly critical of the UN plan, but his views are not shared by all in northern Cyprus.

Disappointment

Turkish Cypriots had congregated outside the parliament building in Nicosia, waiting to find out if they were going to be allowed to vote on the UN peace plan.

I love my country and I don't want to leave it, but because there is no future for me I will have to Young Turkish Cypriot protester

When the news finally came, there was an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

As one of the tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots who saw the deal as the only way of securing their future on the island, newspaper columnist Hasan Kahvecioglu expressed his sadness.

"It is a big catastrophe and Turkish Cypriots cannot accept this," he said.

"It shows the differences between the leadership and the community. Mr Denktash's 'No' has a great meaning and it will increase the tension in the community.

"Also... opposition parties who left the parliament will boycott the parliament because after this there will be no meaning to stay there," he added.

Faltering economy

But it is not just political life in northern Cyprus that will be affected by a failure to reunite the island.

The faltering economy will still have to cope with international trade embargoes placed on the breakaway state.

Erdal Camgoz is struggling to run a travel agency in northern Nicosia.

"I visited lots of tour operators in London [and] the answer was very simple," he said.

"As long as the Cyprus question is not solved, we cannot and we will not operate with north Cyprus.

"It is the same wherever you go, so I don't think that this is fair."

Lack of trust

But the authorities in northern Cyprus maintain that there was much more to the Annan plan than merely the opportunity to join the EU and improve the state of the economy.

The dividing line: Decades of suspicion hamper talks

The former foreign minister in the self-declared republic, Vedat Celik, argues most Turkish Cypriots never fully understood this.

"I don't think very many of them know the details of the plan, for one thing," he said.

"If the question was put to the Turkish Cypriots - do you want the Greeks to come back to the north and reintegrate again? - you wouldn't get these people agreeing to it, not very many.

"Maybe a few, but... north Cypriots won't go back. If they trusted the Greeks they would have gone back to their properties."

Losing the young

But for the younger generation of Turkish Cypriots, living in an economically backward country where they cannot find work, any solution would have been better than none.

I have both children abroad - I don't know whether they will want to return and quite frankly I would not encourage them to Turkish Cypriot Emine Erk

In recent weeks they took to the streets in their tens of thousands to demonstrate the fact.

Increasingly, young people are being driven to emigrate.

"If I can't find a job here I have to leave the country. I have no other choice," one female protester told me.

"I love my country and I don't want to leave it, but because there is no future for me I will have to leave.

"Life here is worse at the moment... no work, graduate students from universities, they don't have work. They are sitting at home. They are waiting to get a job, but they can't," she added.

Bleak future?

The widely held belief amongst most Cypriots is that the number of people leaving will increase steadily in the months ahead.

Barrister Emine Erk sees the migration of the younger generation as a sign that the future for Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus is bleak.

"I think this is, at the moment, one of the highest issues, the biggest pressure on the community, the biggest pain that they are suffering," she said.

"I have both children abroad whom I don't know whether they will want to return and quite frankly I would not encourage them too.

"I would think this is, at least from the Turkish Cypriot side, a disastrous outcome."