The European Union in Northern Cyprus: Conceptualising the Avoidance of Contested States

Abstract

This article explores the role of the EU in unrecognised, also known as contested, states and more specifically, how their level of international recognition and empirical statehood (i.e. government authority and control) influence the EU's engagement. By studying the case of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the article finds that the EU engagement takes the form of 'state avoidance', mostly characterised by an effort to engage without endorsing state recognition and manifested via a) sui generis management of unrecognised borders, b) informal engagement with officials of the unrecognised state, c) replacement of public authorities with non-state actors and d) extensive engagement with civil society. In this regard, the article offers a range of causal explanations that can be tested across a greater number of similar cases. What is more, I contrast state avoidance to state-building approaches evident in aspiring states with more recognition but greater deficit of empirical statehood, such as Kosovo and Palestine, and I argue for a broader conceptualisation of the phenomenon of unrecognised states, allowing for variation in both the degree of recognition and of empirical statehood. As such, the article combines a discussion of rich empirical findings and inductive concept-building that contributes to a more informed discussion and further research development, especially as far as engagement from the EU is concerned.

State recognition and dynamic sovereignty

“…Indeed, literature offers evidence that there is a link between various positions on recognition and the way international actors engage locally. For example, in an opposite scenario, non-recognition seems to have informed an engagement that tries to avoid rather than build the state (Kyris, 2020b).…”

“…Indeed, literature offers evidence that there is a link between various positions on recognition and the way international actors engage locally. For example, in an opposite scenario, non-recognition seems 1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2022 Recognition via the UN Non-Recognition via the UN to have informed an engagement that tries to avoid rather than build the state (Kyris, 2020b). By linking these observations on recognition and international state-building to the concept of sovereignty, we are also allowed to observe an interplay between changes in different aspects of sovereignty over time, whereby some external sovereignty, in the form of titular recognition, facilitates efforts at the strengthening of internal sovereignty, via state-building, which, in turn, leads to greater sovereignty, in the form of more recognition (see Figure 3).…”

The EU and Contested Statehood in its Near Abroad: Europeanisation, Actorness and State-building

“…Kosovo, North Macedonia, Palestine, Serbia, Ukraine) (see Noutcheva 2018, Maass 2019, Dobrescu and Schumacher 2018, Baracani 2019, and Bouris and İşleyen 2018; the enlargement policy/accession process where the EU can use conditionality-related mechanisms (i.e. Cyprus and Kosovo which are considered potential candidates) (see Wydra 2018, Noutcheva 2018, Kyris 2018and Baracani 2019 as well as the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) framework which induces tailor made conditionalities for the 16 countries in the EU's eastern and southern neighborhood (see Cebeci 2018, Wydra 2018, Noutcheva 2018, Maass 2019, Dobrescu and Schumacher 2018, Baracani 2019, and Bouris and İşleyen 2018) (see also Bouris and Schumacher 2017). In addition to such established frameworks for the projection of EU external influence, in recent years the proliferation of appointments of EU Special Representatives for flashpoints in its near abroad has widened the scope for policy entrepreneurship and/or the exercise of significant agency by senior EU officials (Adebahr 2009;Grevi 2007;Tolksdorf 2012Tolksdorf , 2013Tolksdorf , 2015.…”

“…She argues that the lack of recognition of Kosovo by five EU member states has forced the EU to devise innovative institutional and legal solutions on order to overcome internal divisions. The argument, is closely linked to Kyris' (2018) argument that the level of international recognition influences EU engagement with contested states.…”

Affordances and Borderscapes: Language Ideologies, Nationalisms, Generations and Geographies of Resistance in Cyprus

“…TRNC is a de facto state recognised only by Turkey. For a detailed discussion refer to Kyris (2020). 5 Turkey and the Turkish administration in Cyprus encouraged citizens from Turkey to settle to the northern part of the island in an attempt to help the economic development of the TC community (Hadjioannou et al 2011, p. 539).…”