VZCZCXRO8367
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHNC #0521/01 1691403
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 181403Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY NICOSIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7928
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0878
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NICOSIA 000521 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, IO/UNP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV CY TU
SUBJECT: SOUTH'S TURKISH CYPRIOTS CITE DISCRIMINATION, NEEDS 
 
REF: A. 06 NICOSIA 2051 
 
     ¶B. NICOSIA 151 
     ¶C. NICOSIA 52 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: Perhaps 1500 Turkish Cypriots reside in 
the government-controlled areas of Cyprus.  Like the enclaved 
Greek Cypriots of the Karpass peninsula, the T/C community, 
centered in second-city Limassol, endures isolation and 
depends heavily on Republic of Cyprus handouts for its 
existence.  And again like the enclaved G/Cs, schooling 
issues dominate Turkish Cypriots' demands, namely, the 
request for a separate T/C school that would mirror the Greek 
Cypriot facility in Dipkarpaz/Rizokarpasso.  Hoping to sway 
international opinion in the May run-up to a 
highly-anticipated RoC Supreme Court ruling on the need for 
such a school, the Foreign Ministry touted the successes of a 
G/C elementary renovated to serve a multicultural Limassol 
neighborhood.  T/C parents there no longer sought a 
segregated facility for their children, the MFA claimed, 
preferring instead to immerse them in the majority Greek 
Cypriot community. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Embassy staff accepted the headmaster's invitation 
and visited Ayios Antonios Elementary School three weeks 
later, finding a modern, well-equipped institution, committed 
teachers, and bright, happy children who seemingly mixed 
well.  A prominent T/C community leader disputed the "all's 
fine" message coming from the MFA and headmaster, however. 
Turkish Cypriot parents of any means took the RoC's education 
stipends and sent their children to private, 
English-instruction facilities; only the poorest and most 
marginalized T/Cs, vulnerable to Greek Cypriot pressure, 
utilized Ayios Antonios.  Limassol's T/Cs were second-class 
citizens, he lamented, victims of discrimination and neglect. 
 Subsequent Embassy conversations with UNFICYP experts lent 
credence to the community leader's argument, at least as 
regards to the school issue.  Political stubbornness, they 
claimed, not marginal demand, underpinned the RoC's decision 
not to establish a separate facility for T/C youth.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
----------------------------- 
Bigger Numbers, Lower Profile 
----------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) Turkish Cypriots who refused to participate in the 
population exchanges following the conflict of 1974 -- and 
their descendants -- comprise part of the 
government-controlled area's T/C population, which also 
includes newcomers who moved south after the liberalization 
of crossing procedures in 2003.  Demographers estimate they 
number between 800 and 1500; the last official count (2003) 
revealed a population of 1317, roughly three times that of 
the enclaved Greek Cypriots in Karpass.  UNFICYP claims 98 
percent are Roma.  Cyprus's 1960 constitution allowed the 
island's minority groups to self-identify with either of the 
larger Cypriot communities, and primarily for linguistic 
reasons, the Roma checked the T/C box.  Similar to Gypsies 
worldwide, they were historically migratory, predominantly 
poor, and often targets of discrimination and derision. 
Besides Limassol, communities of Turkish Cypriots exist in 
Paphos and Larnaca. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) While the "TRNC" occasionally has protested the 
southern T/Cs' lot and attempted to direct international 
attention their way, the community's profile pales next to 
that of the Karpass Greeks.  Numerous factors explain the 
differing treatment, the best the text of the "Vienna III" 
agreement, which island leaders Archbishop Makarios and Rauf 
Denktash inked in 1975.  In it, Turkish Cypriots "at present 
in the South of the Island will be allowed, if they want to 
do so, to proceed North...with the assistance of UNFICYP." 
With Denktash long a proponent of an ethnically bi-zonal 
Cyprus, neither community leaders nor the UN thought much of 
sustaining a T/C presence in the south.  Conversely, Vienna 
III stipulated that Greek Cypriots "at present in the North 
of the Island are free to stay and they will be given every 
help to lead a normal life, including facilities for 
education and the practice of their religion."  Consistent 
with their preference for a unitary state, Greek Cypriots 
have viewed the enclaved as standard-bearers of Hellenism in 
the "occupied" areas. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) To the present, United Nations troops and officials 
ferry supplies to the 300-odd, mostly aged Greek Cypriots 
inhabiting four isolated villages in Karpass, settle petty 
disputes, even do residents' banking, this despite the 2003 
opening of the Buffer Zone crossings that made visitation for 
relatives in the south routine.  Further, UN pressure and 
 
NICOSIA 00000521  002 OF 004 
 
 
liaison was instrumental in the Turkish Cypriot 
"government's" decision to allow a G/C school in Rizokarpasso 
to open and expand.  UN efforts to assist the T/C community 
seems stark in comparison.  It opened an office in Limassol 
in 1996 to liaise with RoC officials, mainly on human rights 
and welfare/social services issues, but closed it three years 
later, citing underutilization.  Currently, officers from the 
Civil Affairs office periodically consult T/C leaders in 
Limassol and make occasional home visits. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Neither the "TRNC" nor the UN has given up hope of 
securing a separate school for Turkish Cypriot youth, roughly 
modeled after the Rizokarpasso facility.  As pressure points, 
UNFICYP officers have cited the RoC's obligation under 
international law to provide education in the mother tongue, 
as well as the government's numerous written promises to open 
the school.  They are monitoring anxiously a court case which 
the Turkish Cypriot teachers union KTOS filed that demands 
the government take action (Note:  after another in a series 
of RoC-requested adjournments filed June 7, the Supreme Court 
will hear the case September 5.) 
 
--------------------------- 
Government on the Offensive 
--------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Hoping to influence opinions amongst the 
international community, the Foreign Ministry May 4 conducted 
a well-attended diplomatic corps briefing regarding the 
government's efforts to provide a quality education to 
Turkish Cypriots residing in the south.  Erato Marcoullis, 
head of the Cyprus Question division and former ambassador to 
the United States, opened the presentation by claiming the 
RoC remained fully attuned to T/Cs' educational needs.  As a 
result of a 2005 Council of Ministers decision allowing the 
creation of a separate school for Turkish Cypriots, the MFA 
and Education Ministry had pitched this possibility to T/C 
parents in Limassol.  The latter, however, preferred 
immersion to isolation.  "If we're going to be living with 
Greek Cypriots, we should be studying with them, too," one 
parent allegedly had reasoned.  Should T/C opinion eventually 
change, the government remained open to opening a separate 
facility, Marcoullis asserted. 
 
¶8.  (U) Ayios Antonios Elementary School Headmaster Loukas 
Philippou next took the mike.  Until recently, his school, 
located in a low-income, ethnically-mixed neighborhood west 
of downtown Limassol, suffered the same problems of 
inner-city schools in western Europe and the United States: 
declining enrollment and test scores, increasing truancy and 
disciplinary problems, and crumbling infrastructure. 
Racial/ethnic friction was exacerbating the negative climate, 
with the school's Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Roma, and 
Pontian Greek students often clashing.  Hoping to save the 
school and make it a magnet for Limassol's redevelopment, the 
Education Ministry, in coordination with the city, civil 
society, and parents' groups, succeeded in including Ayios 
Antonios in a four-school pilot program targeting the ills 
above.  Keys to the effort included hiring additional 
teachers (two Turkish-speaking) and permanent social workers, 
refurbishing the building, and cracking down on anti-social 
behavior.  Philippou proudly highlighted a Commonwealth award 
for excellence that Ayios Antonios had won in 2006. 
 
¶9.  (U) In the Q and A session that followed, the headmaster 
revealed that 53 of 151 students were Turkish Cypriot (all 
but two Roma).  Racial and ethnic tensions were things of the 
past, he boasted.  Not only were T/C parents in the Ayios 
Antonios district thrilled with the school; Turkish Cypriots 
in other neighborhoods were transferring their kids from 
local facilities.  No longer was there demand in Limassol for 
a separate education for Turkish Cypriot youth.  Concluding, 
he invited those assembled to come see Ayios Antonios for 
themselves. 
 
------------------- 
Shiny, Happy People 
------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) One diplomat captured the mood in the MFA briefing 
room perfectly:  "I know propaganda when I see it."  In 
response, Emboffs May 23 traveled south to visit the school, 
meet Turkish Cypriot leaders, and discuss minority relations 
with the Limassol mayor.  Ayios Antonios Elementary, located 
in the historical Turkish quarter, impressed immediately with 
its orderliness and freshly-scrubbed appearance.  Before a 
follow-on briefing and subsequent tour of the school, the 
student body treated its Embassy visitors to a bilingual 
song-and-dance performance, performing numbers they had 
 
NICOSIA 00000521  003 OF 004 
 
 
recorded for a limited-distribution CD.  All appeared 
enthused with the program and comfortable around students of 
other backgrounds. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) With the Commonwealth award and other 
commemorations displayed proudly on office walls, Philippou 
elaborated upon measures taken to serve the T/C community. 
The additional 100,000 CYP (USD 234,000) in government 
funding had allowed the hiring of two Turkish Cypriot 
teachers, a bilingual social worker, infrastructure updates, 
and purchase of Turkish-language educational materials 
(sourced from Turkey or Greece's Western Thrace, not from 
northern Cyprus.)  The school even covered taxi fares for 
those T/C students hailing from outside Ayios Antonios's 
district.  Turkish Cypriot children were well-integrated into 
the student body, and their parents now participated in its 
PTA-equivalent.  Responding to our inquiry, Philippou 
asserted that neither T/C students nor parents had voiced 
displeasure with the school-wide curriculum and textbooks, 
which many observers consider overly nationalistic (Ref B). 
 
¶12. (SBU) Ayios Antonios's two Turkish Cypriot teachers lived 
in the T/C-administered area and transited the Buffer Zone 
twice per day.  Both appeared fresh out of college and happy 
with the two-year assignment.  Class sizes were small -- 
approximately eight students per -- with T/C children 
spending 8-10 hours each week receiving community-specific 
instruction.  (Note:  Emboffs made two observations that 
called into question Philippou's assertions of seamless 
inter-communal integration.  On each child's desk were 
Education Ministry-supplied notebooks depicting northern 
Cyprus landmarks and carrying the politically-charged caption 
"I Won't Forget." And on a prominently-displayed children's 
drawing of many nations' flags, vandals had scraped off the 
Turkish and Pakistani banners, the only two carrying the 
Muslim crescent-and-star emblems.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Elder Throws Cold Water on Co-existence Image 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Restaurateur Ayhan Mehmet, self-described as the 
only Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur in Limassol, dismissed 
claims that the Ayios Antonios experience satisfied T/C 
parents' educational demands.  Most "authentic" Turkish 
Cypriots -- in his estimation, 10 percent of the Limassol 
community, the remainder being Roma -- utilized the RoC 
scholastic stipend to send their children to the American 
Academy or English School.  Education Ministry staff had 
retooled the "G/C" elementary solely to satisfy UN and 
international community demands, not to provide Turkish 
Cypriots quality learning.  Roma parents had sent their kids 
to Ayios Antonios only after the police threatened to cut off 
RoC welfare benefits, on which 99 percent of them survive. 
Ayhan reserved some blame for the current situation for the 
"TRNC" as well; around 1999, "then-President" Rauf Denktash 
had refused to appoint teachers to staff a UN-arranged 
separate facility. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) A few hours of Turkish language instructions 
hardly constituted education in the native tongue, nor did it 
meet the children's needs, retorted Angelos Kyriakoudes, a 
Turkish-speaking Greek Cypriot teacher and ally of the T/C 
community.  Kyriakoudes, who had had to change schools twice 
owing to harassment for his pro-T/C opinions, contrasted 
Ayios Antonios with the Greek Cypriot school in Rizokarpasso 
"There, G/C kids have their own building, teachers, books 
from the south -- everything."  Both men doubted the 
government's willingness ever to open a school for Turkish 
Cypriots, regardless of the Council of Ministers decision and 
Foreign Ministry's commitment. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Life for Turkish Cypriots outside the school 
disappointed as well, with community members facing daily 
hassles.  As an example, Ayhan recounted how he had sought 
for years to acquire a license for his restaurant, the only 
T/C-owned business in the area.  Local authorities continued 
to spring new demands, however, from increased parking 
availability to mandatory facade changes.  Lacking funds for 
either, he had operated unlicensed for years.  The Greek 
Cypriot-owned tavern across the street, a near-mirror of his 
own, had obtained its licenses seemingly without completing 
mandated upgrades.  Ayhan lacked proof that his ethnicity 
underpinned his problems with the municipality, but in his 
opinion discrimination was to blame. 
 
------------------------------ 
Unbiased Judge Tilts T/Cs' Way 
------------------------------ 
 
NICOSIA 00000521  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Ayhan Mehmet seemed a "straight-shooter" rightly 
concerned about poor conditions in the Turkish Cypriot 
community, ventured UNFICYP Civil Affairs officer Sally Anne 
Corcoran, responsible for liaison with the southern T/Cs. 
His accounts of benefits cutoff threats directed toward Roma 
in Limassol tracked with information UNFICYP had gleaned in 
its home visits, and she had no reason to doubt his 
contention that he and fellow T/Cs faced regular 
discrimination.  Corcoran's opinions on the Cypriot Foreign 
and Education Ministries rang far more negatively.  Despite 
paying lip service to its commitment to provide a separate 
school option, the RoC had fought the measure tooth-and-nail. 
 She singled out recently-deceased Education Minister Pefkios 
Georgiades for criticism, claiming that the much-loved (in 
the G/C community, at least), avuncular Georgiades repeatedly 
erected roadblocks to the school's opening.  He also had 
fought the adoption of more-balanced history textbooks for 
middle and high school students in the government-controlled 
areas.  The actions were indicative of a harder line toward 
Turkish Cypriots that the current administration held, 
Corcoran continued. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Ayios Antonios teachers were committed 
professionals and its administration had effected positive 
change for its Turkish-speaking students, she added.  Its 
focus on improving their hygiene was praiseworthy and 
necessary, given the squalor many inhabited.  But the 
school's efforts did not amount to "providing an education in 
the mother tongue," she asserted.  UNFICYP staff therefore 
were eagerly monitoring the KTOS-filed lawsuit against the 
RoC, now adjourned until September. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶18.  (SBU) Historical and numerical similarities aside, 
differences between the south's Turkish Cypriot community and 
the enclaved G/Cs may exceed commonalities.  Greek Cypriots 
consider their Karpass presence vital to their contention 
that the Republic of Cyprus constitutes the island's 
entirety.  They constantly raise international awareness of 
the enclaved's lot and fund their continued existence 
generously.  In contrast, "TRNC" officials rarely mention 
their Limassol and Paphos compatriots and provide them scant 
financial support.  At least three factors explain the 
differing treatment.  The first is financial; the RoC has far 
greater resources available to succor its northern outpost. 
Racism against Roma likely also plays a part -- leader 
Mehmet's distinction between "real" Turkish Cypriots and 
gypsies diverges little from the prevailing view island-wide. 
 Finally, partition proponent Denktash's primary motivation 
in demanding a separate state for Turkish Cypriots -- to 
protect T/Cs from a Greek Cypriot majority bent on genocide 
or subjugation -- becomes anachronistic should the community 
in the south thrive. 
 
¶19.  (SBU) Thrive they won't, but survive they will.  While 
the enclaved Greek Cypriot population has dwindled due to 
"emigration" south and the dropping birthrate common to all 
Cyprus, our admittedly non-scientific observation of the 
Limassol community showed Turkish-speaking numbers at worst 
holding steady; they might even grow, should the Roma 
birthrate remain higher than average and Kurdish refugees 
continue to arrive in Cyprus.  In addition, the RoC derives 
great utility from a Turkish Cypriot presence in the 
government-controlled areas.  It allows Greek Cypriot leaders 
to refute claims they seek an ethnically-pure state, and 
permits them to show off their altruism in providing much of 
the community with welfare benefits.  Despite the 
"commitment" to multiculturalism, however, we expect no 
sea-change in regards to demands for a separate school for 
Turkish Cypriots.   The stated reason for the most-recent 
adjournment of the KTOS lawsuit -- to translate additional 
documents into Turkish -- seems pure slow-rolling to us. 
ZIMMERMAN