Turkey “has much to gain” if it works with the European Union to stem migrant arrivals from to the ethnically divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a top European Union official said Sunday.
European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said he’s hopeful Turkish authorities will show the same degree of cooperation on curbing migrant arrivals to Cyprus island as they did on helping the EU deal with a Belarussian “hybrid attack” pushing migrants across its border into Poland.
“Look, Turkey, as all other of our neighbors, must understand a very simple thing: that on the migration issue, they have much to gain if they work with Europe instead of working against Europe,” Schinas said.
Schinas will travel to Turkey next month for talks to assess ways in which migrants reach the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), either through flights from Istanbul or by boat from the country’s southern coast. Some 85% of migrants who reach the north slip across a United Nations-controlled buffer zone that severs the island along ethnic lines.
The EU official spoke after touring several frequently used migrant crossing routes along the buffer zone. The island’s division came in 1974 when Turkey intervened in the wake of a coup aiming at union with Greece.
Greek Cypriot officials have accused Turkey of deliberately channeling migrants to the island’s north. The buffer zone isn't recognized as an EU external border and authorities have refrained from building any walls. But officials say they will employ “high-tech measures" to curb buffer zone crossings.
“What I see here today along the Green Line is shocking, it’s a completely different perception of the problem than seeing it from a distance,” said Schinas, adding that the island with its limited resources has to shoulder an “extremely large, disproportionate” burden.
"At the crossroads of three continents, the island of Cyprus is not immune to irregular migration. Both the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot administration of southern Cyprus receive irregular immigration from various countries," said a statement from the TRNC's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in November.
"Contrary to the Greek Cypriot side, our country is devoid of international assistance and struggling with irregular migration only with the support of motherland Turkey," it added.
The statement said the issue of irregular migration should be addressed within the spirit of cooperation and requires joint efforts with a sense of responsibility and solidarity from the international community.
"We would like to take this opportunity to renew, once again, our proposal for cooperation on irregular migration, which poses a significant challenge to all of us," it added.
Greek Cyprus says it has the highest number of first-time asylum applications among all 27 EU members, relative to its population of roughly 1.1 million. Interior Minister Nicos Nouris has told EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson that the country cannot host more asylum-seekers “due to the severe burden" on its reception system.
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the United Nations to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The TRNC was founded in 1983. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year when Greek Cypriots thwarted a U.N.-led plan to end the dispute.
