Managing Intractable Conflicts: Lessons from Moldova and Cyprus

Foreword on Behalf of Global Political Trends Center of Istanbul Kültür University
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FOREWORD ON BEHALF OF GLOBAL POLITICAL
TRENDS CENTER OF ISTANBUL KÜLTÜR
UNIVERSITY
While the Cyprus and Transnistrian problems are just two of the numerous
ongoing conflicts around the world, we believe that a comparative study of these
two cases can provide useful information for actors involved in conflict resolution.
The Global Political Trends Center (GPoT Center) of Istanbul Kültür University
has been involved with almost all dimensions of the Cyprus conflict since the
Center’s formation. During the past couple of years GPoT Center has organized
several rounds of talks between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots entitled the
Heybeliada Talks. The meetings have been conducted following the strict Chatham
House rules in a retreat on Heybeliada Island close to Istanbul, and have become
a symbol of GPoT Center’s second track activities on Cyprus. In addition, GPoT
Center has focused on several different dimensions of the Cyprus problem through
its various publications. We have come to understand that a comparative perspective
is needed in order to better comprehend the psychology of the conflicting parties
and formulate innovative solution oriented approaches.
GPoT Center is proud to share this study that compares the Cyprus issue with the
Transnistrian case, deriving lessons from both. We would like to present this book
to those who are concerned not only with the two case studies but all those who are
aware of the potential negative regional and international consequences of leaving
these conflicts unresolved.
While the origins of both problems diverge in many aspects that are futile to compare,
there are also two major similarities. They are both based on ethnic belonging and
in each case there are two states, one recognized and one not. Furthermore, the
resolution processes for both of these cases are blocked making a comparison
worthwhile. We believe that the one-year collaboration with our colleagues from
the Foreign Policy Association (APE) of Moldova has been a successful and useful
endeavor that has resulted in a publication that we hope will provide the readers with
many new insights into conflict resolution studies.
The questions asked when this project was launched were how to unblock the stalled
processes, how to solve the issues in both crises, and whether or not actors who desire
a resolution could learn any lessons from the Transnistrian or Cyprus experiences.
We, who took part in this project, have learned numerous lessons and have been