Diplomacy&Beyond: Selda Çimen

Diplomacy & Beyond talk series hosted Selda Çimen, Head of Mission of the Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic to Hungary. The topics of the talk were concentrated on career in diplomacy, the importance of cultural diplomacy, Northern Cyprus-Hungarian bilateral relations and current international issues.

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/culturalrelations/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1304429536288059

Summary: Within the series of talks Diplomacy & Beyond organised by the Institute for Cultural Relations Policy in cooperation with Kodolányi János Főiskola, a discussion was held with the Head of Mission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to Hungary, Selda Çimen, on the 25th of October 2016. The event was opened by Dr. Péter Zachar (Chair for International Relations and History at Kodolányi János Főiskola) and thereafter moderated by András Lőrincz, founder of the ICRP. After around a one hour discussion the audience had a chance to ask questions.
The talk started with information about Ms. Çimen’s personal career then continued with politics and policies in Northern Cyprus and concluded with international law and relations.
After her education, Ms. Çimen served for nine years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first in the Department of Public Information Office and then in the Department of Foreign Affairs. In addition Ms. Çimen explained the challenges and the extra efforts the diplomats of Northern Cyprus have to put in for their voices to be heard in the international arena.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is a self-declared state that comprises of the northeastern part of the Cyprus Island and is recognised only by Turkey, where it also has the only embassy with de jure recognition along with three consulates. Although the international community considers Northern Cyprus as part of the Republic of Cyprus, authorities of Northern Cyprus have opened representative offices in 20 countries with 24 missions. By the decision to have many more missions abroad, the state gets the chance to develop bilateral relations in the fields of economy, culture, education, trade and politics. Within this context the representative office was opened in Hungary/Budapest in 2014.
For the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkey plays a huge role, not only as guarantor of security in the international arena, but also as the main trading partner.
Also discussed was the Annan Plan, which was a United Nations proposal to unify the island as a federation of two states, “United Republic of Cyprus”. In a referendum in 2004, 65% of the Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan, where 76% of the Greek Cypriots rejected it. Regarding the peace process and reunification, Ms. Çimen said that intensified negotiations are currently taking place between the two sides. From six issues that have to be negotiated (the economic affairs, the European affairs, governance and power sharing, property, territorial adjustments and security and guaranties), 4 achieved significant progress, where 2 of them (territorial adjustments and security and guaranties) are not opened yet.
Since Northern Cyprus lacks international recognition, the freedom of movement is restricted. However, in the European Parliament six seats are allocated based on the population in both north and south Cyprus together.

Edina Paleviq