There Is No Difference Between Donetsk And northern Cyprus - 1945

14.APRIL.2022
Michael Rubin

Cyprus Gaffe Highlights Deeper Policy Flaw: Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland did not distinguish herself when, at a press conference in Cyprus during a tour through Europe, she spoke about a forthcoming meeting with Ersin Tatar, the leader of the Turkish-occupied northern portion of the country. “I’m going to go up to the north and spend a little time with President Tatar,” she said before someone in the audience queried her legitimization of the occupation by calling Tatar “president.” “I guess it was a mistake,” she said after confirming with her aides off-podium.

Put aside the projection to Cypriots that she visited without knowing the situation; those aware of the issues arising from an almost 50-year occupation need not clumsily page through notes.

Dangerous double standards - KATHIMERINI

21.02.2022 • 21:30

Advocating for justice for Cyprus in Washington, DC requires levels of commitment and stamina that most people do not appreciate. Listening to administration after administration loudly declare commitments to human rights and international law while reducing such commitments to whispers with regard to Cyprus is maddening. Trying to decipher why the US State Department uses the word “occupation” around the world while studiously avoiding it when talking about Cyprus makes us feel for the scholars who were trying to understand hieroglyphics prior to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. Tragically, we often feel that State Department and National Security officials speak to us (and to the Republic of Cyprus) as if they are engaged in their own version of the Melian Dialogue: “The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must.”

This frustration reached a new level this month. On February 1, Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They discussed bilateral relations, regional cooperation (including fixing the mess caused by the famous EastMed “non-paper”), and new confidence building measures on Cyprus. The day before, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield admonished the Russians at the United Nations Security Council with this statement: “Imagine how uncomfortable you would be if you had 100,000 troops sitting on your border.”

Ukraine: Confederal Solution Looms | Russian Insider

A split nation

Alexander Mercouris  - Proposals by the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and comments by Kerry and Steinmeier suggest confederal structure just short of outright partition is the best Ukraine can now hope for.

In the absence of any proposal for constitutional reform from Kiev, the space is being filled by the Russians and by the two regions in the Donbass that are resisting the authority of the Maidan government – the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

This Is What Putin Really Wants | The National Interest

Fiona Hill, February 24, 2015 | Putin doesn't want to restore the Russian Empire or a new geopolitical order. He wants something else entirely... At a news conference in Budapest on February 17, Russian president Vladimir Putin engaged in one of his favorite pastimes: sparring with journalists. One reporter asked if Putin thought the newly brokered ceasefire in Ukraine’s Donbas region would hold. If not, what would Russia do if the United States sent weapons to the Ukrainian army? “Arms supplies are already taking place,” Putin asserted.

The Cyprus Model

Assume that Americans and their NATO allies are right 100% in saying that Putin is provoking the escalation of tension in south and eastern Ukraine. Imagine that after sufficient "provocations" from the Ukrainians Putin has had enough and outright invades Ukraine, even bombs Kiev, and chases pro-western Ukrainians away by force from the south and the east of the country. Imagine further that Poroshenko makes a desperate plea at the United Nations for the cessation of hostilities & the respect of his country's territorial integrity. Imagine that a temporary exchange of populations is agreed, so that all Russians of Ukraine move to the Russia-occupied south and east of the country, or the Russia occupied half of Kiev, as well as allowing the remaining few Ukrainians to move to the free Ukraine. Imagine that the United Nations, unable/unwilling to chase Putin out and after six years of dead-end talks, "convinces" the Ukrainians to pursue a Bizonal Bicommunal Federation, based on the Cyprus 2004 Annan Plan, as the only realistic way out of the conflict that preserves the fundamental goal of keeping the country united, insisting that such plan is in line with the organization's principles. Just imagine. And Putin would be right in asserting that unlike Cyprus, bizonality in Ukraine was a pre-exisiting condition, not the result of ethnic cleansing. See map below.

Obama’s Hypocrisy Regarding Forcible Border Changes | CATO Institute

FEBRUARY 12, 2015 - By TED GALEN CARPENTER SHARE

In a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama stated that he was considering sending weapons to the government of Ukraine.  Noting that Russia had already annexed Crimea and was now backing separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, the president warned that “the West cannot stand and simply allow the borders of Europe to be redrawn at the barrel of a gun.”

Time to pay attention when Noam Chomsky and Henry Kissinger agree on Ukraine | Mint Press News

Kevin Zeese 07 February 2015 | Noam Chomsky says Henry Kissinger should be prosecuted for his war crimes but on Ukraine they are surprisingly close to agreement.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering sending more weapons to Ukraine – $3 billion worth. The Times reports: "Secretary of State John Kerry, who plans to visit Kiev on Thursday [Feb. 5], is open to new discussions about providing lethal assistance, as is Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, officials said."

This follows Defense News reporting that this spring the United States will be sending troops to train the Ukrainian National Guard and commence the shipping of U.S.-funded armored vehicles. The funding for this is coming from the congressionally-authorized Global Security Contingency Fund, which was requested by the Obama administration in the fiscal year 2015 budget to help train and equip the armed forces of allies around the globe.

Three Pre-Crisis Maps

Pre-crisis maps of three bicommunal states: Ukraine, "Turkey" and Cyprus. Guess which nation is blackmailed to apply a BIZONAL solution.

EU Has Misconceptions About the Origin of Ukrainian Conflict by Alexander Mercouris | RIA Novosti

LONDON, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - The ASEM summit in Milan cruelly exposed the illusions EU leaders hold about the Ukrainian conflict, and not for the first time

Ever since the February coup in Ukraine, the EU’s leaders have held to two assumptions: First, that the crisis in Ukraine is a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and second, that they can bend Russia to their will by applying pressure on it to achieve the outcome they want in Ukraine. This outcome would entail the complete restoration of Kiev’s undiluted political control over the whole country, including the rebellious regions in the east (even the EU leaders quietly acknowledge that Crimea is lost to Ukraine forever). (cnt'd)

Antifon's note: Why should Russia wish less in terms of political rights for the sizable ethnic Russian community of Ukraine when the west has been supporting apartheid and outrageous privileges for the Turkish Cypriot minority community of Cyprus, either via the constitution it forced on Cypriots in 1960 or the divisive plan it hailed in 2004 that would legitimize the results of an illegal invasion, the ethnic cleansing that ensued, as well as the colonization under way to this day?

Why does the west expect Russia to mind less for its brethren than it does for its NATO Muslim ally and the minorities of other countries the latter cares about?