From the United Cyprus Republic to Two-State Solution

Abstract

In November 2002, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem consisting of a federation of two largely independent states. The four-times revised plan was submitted on 24 April 2004 to both communities in separate referendums for voting. The Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan with 65 percent of the votes, whereas the Greek Cypriots rejected it with a proportion of 76 percent of the votes. In this framework, this work first aims to examine the political context and causes of the rejection of the Annan Plan V, and then to examine Turkey's new policy for changing the status quo, which started after the last presidential elections in North Cyprus in 2020. This study also focuses on whether the political reasons for the rejection of the Annan Plan are still valid in today's Cyprus negotiations. Finally, this paper examines if a bi-communal and bi-zonal structure is acceptable to Cypriots, as well as the role of the European Union in the current negotiations. According to the facts and findings about the political rejection of the Annan Plan, this research shows that those reasons do still affect the Cyprus negotiations.