Turkish Cypriots hope for better future

KYRENIA, Cyprus -- Hasan Beydola, a Turkish Cypriot textile exporter near bankruptcy, was glum Sunday a day after Greek Cypriots sank a U.N. plan to reunify Cyprus -- and with it, hopes that his business would get a boost when the island enters the European Union.\nNow, Beydola and other Turkish Cypriots are waiting to hear how the EU will keep its promise to reward them for supporting the U.N. plan.\nTurkish Cypriots in the north overwhelmingly voted "yes," while Greek Cypriots in similar numbers in the south voted "no" in twin referendums Saturday.\nWith the defeat of the plan, which required agreement from both sides, all of Cyprus will enter the EU, but the union's laws and benefits will apply only to the internationally recognized south.\nCyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 to put down a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. For three decades, international isolation of the north meant Beydola could export only to Turkey -- the sole country recognizing his breakaway state. After Turkey's 1995 customs union agreement with the EU, even those exports declined.\nThe per capita gross domestic product among Turkish Cypriots is about $4,610, compared with $14,499 among Greek Cypriots and $22,740 for the current 15 EU member states.\nA united Cyprus entering the European Union was Beydola's hope -- as well as the hope of many Turkish Cypriots.\n"I will be punished for voting 'yes' for a plan supported by the EU," said Beydola, 41. "And those who voted 'no' will be rewarded. How is this fair?"\nEU officials "should take some steps to ease the embargoes on us and to make our lives easier," he said.\nHad Cypriots approved the reunification plan that the EU helped the United Nations draft, $311 million would have flowed in to help the north and mechanisms to start trade with Europe would have been instituted.\nEuropean Union foreign ministers open a two-day meeting in Luxembourg Monday to discuss measures to help Turkish Cypriots that were promised before the vote but never detailed. Some possibilities would be creating trade opportunities, lifting tariffs on farm products or funding infrastructure development. Lifting the trade embargo may prove difficult because it was the result of judgments by the European Court of Justice.\nThe U.N. plan envisioned a federation of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot states under a weak central government. The Turkish area of the island would have been reduced to 29 percent, from 37 percent, requiring entire villages to be uprooted. The number of foreign troops -- currently 40,000 Turks and 6,000 Greeks -- would have been gradually reduced to a maximum of 6,000 by 2011 and 1,600 by 2018.\nGreek Cypriots objected that the plan did not provide for the return to homes in the north of Greek Cypriots who fled south in 1974. They also said it allowed Turkish troops to stay too long and did not address their security fears.\nGreek Cypriots say they still hope for reunification, but under a better deal, and that they bear Turkish Cypriots no ill will.\nGreek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said Sunday without elaboration that his government will make specific proposals at Monday's meeting to "enable the Turkish Cypriots to enjoy as much as possible the benefits of their country's accession to the EU."\n"The Greek Cypriots are not turning their backs on their Turkish Cypriot compatriots. On the contrary, we shall work for a solution that will meet the hopes and aspirations of both communities," Papadopoulos said.\nTurkish leaders urged the EU to reach out to Turkish Cypriots.\n"It is an undeniable fact that the Turkish side was the active and constructive side for a Cyprus solution," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "I believe that the policy of isolating, of alienating (Turkish Cypriots) will now come to an end."\nThough many Turkish Cypriots honked their horns and gathered in the Turkish side of the divided capital of Nicosia to celebrate their "yes" vote Saturday night, they have a hard time believing the outside world will welcome them. World sympathy has largely been with Greek Cypriots since 1974.