Ready for a New Beginning

While Cyrus Vance toured the Middle East last week, President Carter's special envoy Clark Clifford, 70, flew to another eastern Mediterranean trouble spot. His mission: to bolster U.S. relations with Greece ; and Turkey and to help resolve the longstanding impasse between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. In 1974, following the Athens-inspired coup against Prelate-President Makarios, Turkish troops invaded the island, and the savage war left Cyprus with an internal frontier of barbed wire, mines and armor. Turkish forces seized the northerly 40% of the island, causing some 200,000 Greek Cypriots to flee to the south. The war also left the eastern flank of NATO in a shambles, with both the Greeks and the Turks blaming their American allies for trying to maintain a measure of neutrality.

The Clifford mission is the latest step in a U.S.-sponsored drive for a settlement. First signs of a thaw between the island's heavily armed and mutually suspicious communities occurred four weeks ago, when Archbishop Makarios and Turkish Cypriot Leader Rauf DenktaS: held an unexpectedly cordial meeting, their first in 13 years. With Washington's support, U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim brought the two leaders together for a second time at a dinner meeting held in the U.N.-patrolled no man's land dividing the island.

During the talks, Makarios defended the demand of the Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their former homes in the Turkish-controlled part of the island. But he accepted as a reality a separate Turkish ethnic state that will be a legitimate part of an eventual two-state federation. Denktas. said he was willing "to reduce the Turkish Cypriot-held share of the island from 40% to about 33%--and perhaps more. Both leaders agreed that further talks, scheduled to be held next month in Vienna, will cover such complex issues as the return of some refugees to their former homes.

Neither of the ethnic communities is altogether satisfied with the status quo. Though the island's 120,000 Turks have controlled the industrialized north since 1974, they lack the skilled manpower to operate the factories. As a result, Turkish Cyprus depends on mainland Turkey for more than half its budget. Even so, Turkish Cypriots are not nostalgic for their former life. They are keenly aware that they are only 18% of the island's 640,000 inhabitants, and they still fear the Greek Cypriots' enduring conviction that Cyprus is inherently Greek.

The 520,000 Greek Cypriots in the south are hardly less fearful, but they have reacted to defeat with astonishing resilience. From the new Greek-Cypriot airport at Larnaca, planes take off daily with businessmen seeking export sales of clothes, plastics and wines. Many Greeks lost factories and homes in the north, but they are hustling so hard that per capita income in the Greek part of the island is back to its pre-1974 level ($1,200 per year). Businessman Theo Hadjilambrou, 38, says jokingly, "When we Greek Cypriots see one of our group living a little better, the others work 25 hours a day." Nonetheless, few Greek Cypriots would accept any peace agreement that did not give them some hope of returning to their former homes.

As it happens, both Denktas and Makarios are anxious to appear conciliatory. Denktas, is under pressure from Ankara, which is concerned about a $1 billion arms aid bill that is held up in the U.S. Congress pending some progress in the Cyprus negotiations. Makarios needs continued international support to maintain his political position in the face of strong gains by the Greek Cypriot Communist Party. "The Greek Cypriots now realize they can't return to the old Cyprus," says a foreign diplomat in Nicosia. "The Turks now understand they can't act like conquerors. The war is over." When he arrives in Cyprus from Athens and Ankara, Clark Clifford may find both sides more amenable than they have been at any time since the 1974 war.

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