Dispute Between Greek & Turkish Cypriots

The dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots over the island's political destiny is often seen as one of the world's intractable conflicts. In this respect the Cyprus dispute resembles other tragic and seemingly endless feuds over sovereignty, such as those in Ulster, Kashmir, or Jerusalem. Observers are often pessimistic about the prospects for resolution of such conflicts because both sides present uncompromising and irreconcilable positions. Indeed the actors in these disputes have often been raised in an environment of fear and distrust of their adversaries and do not see themselves as sharing a common destiny with them. Consequently they are unwilling or unable to contemplate conflict resolutions that take the wishes of both sides into account. However compromise on both sides is usually necessary in dispute resolution, which is why disputes of this nature are labeled intractable.

In this dissertation I propose to examine two conflict resolution strategies Transcend and human needs in the context of the current dispute over Cyprus. Although much has been written about the enmity between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, there is a decided dearth of literature exploring how modern techniques of conflict resolution could be applied to Cyprus. Accordingly I intend to study the Cyprus conflict through the lens of modern conflict resolution theory, thereby answering a complex question that can be simplified to this: Do the human needs or Transcend perspectives offer any hope fo

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hrough the seventeenth century. Second, Ottoman authorities pursued a policy of tolerance toward the Greek Cypriot inhabitants of the island the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek language were therefore given official sanction, and the Greek Cypriot community developed a high degree of cultural cohesion during Ottoman rule, free from the confines of the Roman-oriented rulers who had held the island in previous centuries (Erlekum, 8). By the late nineteenth century, Britain had developed a keen interest in Cyprus, as it lay on a naval route to the Suez Canal. Britain, with an eye on Cyprus, supported Turkey in its 1878 war with Russia in exchange for the use of Cyprus; thus Turkey had all but given Cyprus to Britain. Then in 1914 Turkey declared war against Britain as a result of the tangled alliances partly responsible for World War I. Britain then formally annexed Cyprus, and all Cypriots became British subjects (Faustmann, 33). The latter move set the stage for the present conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. As the British Empire began its decline in the aftermath of World War I, two competing plans for the island's future emerged. The Greek view, known as enosis, involves the political union of Cyprus with mainland G

Category: Foreign - D