Resolving Cyprus Issues: The 13 (constitutional) Points and the famous Annan Plan

When Cyprus is mentioned, the first association is a state divided into two entities, a divided island, with only one part, as a member of the European Union ... an extremely
unusual solution. Cyprus is a country that has lived in constant rivalry between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The 1960 constitution has been revised several times, but despite all efforts and involvement on the international stage, it has failed to improve the tense situation. For many, it is an imposed Constitution (not reflecting the will of the people), based on the Treaty of Zurich and London (Together with the Zürich and London
Agreements, two other treaties were also agreed upon in Zurich- referring to Cyprus -the Treaty of Guarantee and Treaty of Alliance ). The imposed constitution, as presented, did not last long, changes were needed, among which the 13 constitutional amendments of President Makarios appeared and attracted the attention. But we will mention here as well the UN commitments, and their famous Annan plan. The aim of the paper is to give a short background of the problem and try to show the consequences of international involvement in internal issues, especially in a sensitive field like the constitutional one. The focus is on constitutional and legal problems and dilemmas, the international influence in changing and
/ or creating national constitutions with special reference and emphasis on the so-called imposed constitutions. The reason of that is the very often picture of legal constitution�makers, who face several problems in drafting constitutions, such as the implementation of enacted constitutional solutions, resulting from political agreements between domestic political actors, with international mediators acting as mediators, but in fact being the creators.
Constitutional "engineers" see the constructed constitutional solutions as a legal mechanism for (re) designing reality.
But the problem is that, very often, these situations end with the scenario of the so-called "soleless states". Why? Because a constitution is created (or changed) without the will of the people themselves, a constitution is created but is not at all close to the previous one (fragile
constitution), a constitution is created but does not reflect the historical, social, economic background of the state, a constitution is created from the great powers - at the expense of the small states ... Why are foreign "solutions" accepted for domestic issues, in the spirit of
Thucydides' maxim that: the strong do what they can, and the weak do what they have to do?
Keywords: constitution, international involvements, United Nations, constitutional engineering