A Federal Constitution for Cyprus: Observations from an EU Project

Nicos Peristianis and Yucel Vural¹

In this article, we would like to share some of our initial observations from a bi-communal research project titled “Developing Common Ideas on Constitutional Issues” funded by the European Union Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community.

The said project aims to involve Greek- and Turkish- Cypriots in reflecting on and discussing aspects and provisions of the future Constitution of a re-united, federal Cyprus. It is premised on the principle that the involvement of the citizens in Constitution making is of paramount importance in the creation of any modern state.

Constitutions are products of modernity - of the ideas of the enlightenment and of the rise of nation states, which gave a central role to the citizens or the people of a country. Constitutions comprise the fundamental framework of modern polities, setting out the collective political vision of a people, the central values and laws as regards the organization and functioning of the state, as well as the main rights and obligations of the citizens. 

Historically the first Constitutions were produced in the United States of America and France. But once these initial Constitutions set their mark as important aspects of these pioneering regimes, other states were to follow their example; indeed these founding documents were to become one of the most important pillars of modern nation-states. Inevitably each state was to write its own unique constitution, according to its unique features – historical trajectory, social realities, established precedents, collective aims and hopes, and so on.

In homogeneous societies, the adoption of a Constitution doesn’t present insurmountable difficulties. Polyethnic and multinational polities have an especially difficult time in agreeing on the parameters of a common constitution, since the presence of heterogeneous founders/partners, makes consensus

 more difficult to reach. Indeed in recent times, it has been proposed that in cases where for some reason ethnic or national identity cannot act as the “glue” of a national state, the Constitution itself may serve that purpose instead. For instance, in post-World War II Germany, given the role of nationalism in the growth and prevalence of Nazism, it did not seem wise to foster a renewed sense of strong identification with the nation: and that is why the cultivation of “Constitutional Patriotism” has been proposed as an alternative. Others have similarly argued that a similar approach may be appropriate for the European Union, given that it is comprised of many nations and hence it wouldn’t be possible to cultivate a unified national identity for all. Finally, there are yet other cases, such as Bosnia, where the Constitution was imposed on the locals by expert outsiders – but because of increasing problems in the working of the multinational regime, there are voices calling for a re-write of a “Constitution of the People” by the people themselves, which will allow more flexibility and adjustment to changing social realities and re-alignments of the social forces.

Obviously similar dilemmas are faced by Cyprus, since it is striving to find a way of bringing under the same state roof two diverse ethno-national communities. Indeed the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus was written with minimal, if any, involvement of the Cypriots themselves. Given the absence of a common nationality, the Constitution could have provided the necessary pivot for unity, yet since the Constitution was drafted by outsiders, the locals saw it as a foreign imposition, allowing little room for collective identification. No wonder a sense of commonality was missing and soon the state would disintegrate along ethno-national lines ─ leading to the “first division” of the communities between 1964-1974 and to the subsequent deeper territorial partition after 1974. 

In 2004, the Annan Plan offered a new prospect for the reunification of the island on the basis of a  

“Bi-communal, Bi-zonal, Federation” (BBF), but again the process didn’t allow much input by the Cypriots themselves. Indicatively copies of the Constitution and of all the other related documents (constituting around one thousand pages of written materials) were provided to the citizens just a few days prior to the referendum, which meant that the Cypriots hardly had the time to read these ─ let alone debate and agree upon!

The proposed project aims to improve on past experiences by taking a first step in involving the Cypriots in the process of debating aspects of the future Constitution. Not in order to come up with a draft Constitution but in coming up with ideas as to how to tackle thorny issues relating to the future Constitution; and encouraging Cypriots to reflect on these difficult issues and coming up with their own suggestions as to how they may be handled. Not an easy process of course but realizing the difficulties involved will be a part of the project.