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Good News: Survey of Turkish Cypriots now complete!

Propose and discuss specific solutions to aspects of the Cyprus Problem

Postby Alexandros Lordos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:31 am

turkcyp wrote:To my disapointment the surver more looks like

"what would you accepts as a change to Annan Plan so that it is acceptable to GCs"

rather than

"what kind of changes do you want to Annan Plan"


I am sorry about this, turkcyp. I asked all sorts of Turkish Cypriots what changes they would want themselves, and I got very little, such as the requirement to ensure that GC weapons held in homes leave the island or the requirement that a solution forms part of EU primary law ... most people I asked, it seemed to me, were more or less content with the Annan Plan as it was, and didn't look for any particular changes.

(Except ofcourse the hard-No group of TCs, who demanded such things as separate sovereignty and even less territory to be returned to GCs. I treated these hardliners the same way I treated the GC hardline demands: ie, I didn't bother to include them. Such demands are guarantees of deadlock, and the point of the survey was to help find a solution, not another deadlock)

But anyhow, for many of the questions in the survey a majority of TCs answered that they consider the particular change desirable or essential - for instance the requirement that Turkey contribute financially for ten more years, implementation mechanism for illegal workers to leave, framework to encourage the development of bicommunal political parties and so on ...

Personally, I think we should try to escape the "my change" - "your change" logic. There are many improvements that are simply beneficial for both sides.
Last edited by Alexandros Lordos on Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby magikthrill » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:36 am

Isn't allowing settlers to stay in Cyprus a way of commending Turkey for its illegaly action of invading Cyprus?

Am I the only one who thinks this way?
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Postby Alexandros Lordos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:38 am

magikthrill wrote:Isn't allowing settlers to stay in Cyprus a way of commending Turkey for its illegaly action of invading Cyprus?

Am I the only one who thinks this way?


Magikthrill,

if I may ask, could we please have this conversation about settlers in another thread, and keep this thread for the presentation of the survey only? :wink:
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Postby Piratis » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:45 am

If someone explains to me how I can copy/paste images in my message, you could all have a look at the relevant charts.


You should upload the images to a server and the use the img tag. E.g:

[ img ]http://www.server.com/image.jpg[/ img ]

(without the spaces in "[ img ]")
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Postby magikthrill » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:49 am

Alexandros Lordos wrote:Magikthrill,

if I may ask, could we please have this conversation about settlers in another thread, and keep this thread for the presentation of the survey only? :wink:


sure, i just though it was relative to the survey. i tried deleting it but I guess we can't do that.
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Postby Othellos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:02 am

Personally, I think we should try to escape the "my change" - "your change" logic. There are many improvements that are simply beneficial for both sides.


What you wrote above Alexandre is very reasonable, but personally I do not see it happening. As for your survey, one can only conratulate you for your initiative as well as your excellent effort.

Good luck with everything and please let us know where we can obtain a copy of your new survey once you are done analyzing the results.

O.
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Postby Alexandros Lordos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:13 am

turkcyp wrote:To my disapointment the survey more looks like

"what would you accept as a change to Annan Plan so that it is acceptable to GCs"

rather than

"what kind of changes do you want to Annan Plan"


Turkcyp,

further to my response above, here are the changes which the great majority of TCs considered desirable or essential: (I will include the ones already mentioned above, so that we have a complete list here)

- The Presidential Council to be elected directly by the people.

- The Federal State to place limits on the public borrowing of constituent states. (very interesting result, we always assume that the TCs prefer a weak central state and a freely-deciding constituent state, but it seems here that they would not trust TC state authorities - or GC state authorities for that matter - on such a serious economic issue which could bring down the whole economy. They've exprerienced enough economic hardship already)

- Strong Implementation mechanisms for the departure of illegal workers.

- Strong implementation mechanisms for the withdrawal of military weapons kept in the homes of GCs

- Turkey to continue its current annual contribution to the TC constituent state for ten more years after the solution.

- International Donors to finance a greater proportion of the cost of the solution.

- The terms of the solution to form primary law of the EU, so that they cannot later be overturned through the application of European Law.

- Enforceable international guarantees for the implementation of the solution, with serious consequences for the side that breaks from what has been agreed.

- Each refugee that will not receive his original home to be entitled to a new one in the same town or village (they were probably hoping here that this would mean new homes for TCs in the south - an interesting thought actually, but I think their response here also shows a genuine concern that their right to stay in their current homes will not mean totally trampling on GCs right of return)

- The compensation for property to be in cash, not bonds and shares.

- The right to become a resident of the other constituent state to be given much sooner than currently provided for in the plan (TCs, it seems, have also gotten fed up with having their rights limited)

- More incentives and compensation for those who will have to leave Cyprus because of the solution.

- Firm limits to the number of immigrants from Turkey that may in the future come to Cyprus after Turkey enters the EU.

- More equitable cost sharing in the Federal Government (from this I infer that TCs have self-respect, and don't like the idea of living off GC donations)

- Greater incentives for the creation of bicommunal business ventures.

- The education of GCs in the north and TCs in the south to be the responsibility of the Federal Government.

- Free instruction of English and Greek for all TCs who may want it.

- Provisions that will encourage the development of bicommunal political parties.

- The new state to be the legal continuity of the RoC (I was very surprised by this result, it seems that most TCs remain attached to the common state created in 1960, despite official rhetoric, and they are also concerned that the new state of affairs will have legal status and that they won't fall into a non-recognition trap again)

So, my friend, it seems that TCs would consider desirable or essential (not just tolerable) 19 out of the 32 changes suggested in the survey ...

If anyone has any interesting explanations of the above results (why these changes are so popular amongst TCs) I would be very interested to listen ...
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Postby Othellos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:38 am

Some very surprising answers indeed, Alexandre. Can you please tell us what were the most "popular" changes that the TCs questioned would like to see and with what %?

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Postby cannedmoose » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:17 pm

Alexandros Lordos wrote:
boulio wrote:excellent work Dr.LORDOS :!:


Thank you, for the honorary doctorate :)


Alex, is this project part of a doctoral study? If not, have you considered doing deeper research on this? Quantitative results are all well and good but backed up by qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews, your research would assume even greater value.
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Postby Alexandros Lordos » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:21 pm

Othellos wrote:Can you please tell us what were the most "popular" changes that the TCs questioned would like to see and with what %?


Ok, here follows:

- Stronger implementation mechanism for the departure of illegal workers - essential to 58%, essential or desirable to 67%

- Free instruction of English and Greek for all TCs in order to improve employment prospects - 53%, essential or desirable to 66%

- Enforceable international guarantees for the implementation of the solution - essential to 52%, essential or desirable to 67%

- Each refugee that will not receive his original home, to be entitled to a new home in the same town or village - essential to 47%, essential or desirable to 62%

- Stronger incentives and compensation for those who will have to leave Cyprus because of the solution - essential to 45%, essential or desirable to 61%

- Presidential Council by direct election - essential to 44%, essential or desirable to 57%

- Turkey to continue its current annual contribution for 10 years - essential to 43%, essential or desirable to 58%

- Stronger implementation mechanisms for withdrawal of GC military weapons - essential to 43%, essential or desirable to 51%

- Bicommunal Business ventures - essential to 43%, essential or desirable to 58%

- Bicommunal Political Parties - essential to 42%, essential or desirable to 61%

- Property Compensation to be in cash - essential to 41%, essential or desirable to 53%

- International donors to offer more - essential to 41%, essential or desirable to 60%
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