Cyprus-Forum.com

[boulio]

I read the following article in turkish news by mehmet ali birand and in the second part he states that the eu has forgiven the roc.my own personal opinion there was never anything to forgive and never thought that cyprus was a pariah within the eu,however yesterday papadopoulos spoke at some conference and the belian pm was all praise for pappadopoulos on how he is a constitiuional expert and blah blah..

do people think that turkey and the t/c have dropped the ball by letting the momentum for voting yes in april slip away?and is pappadopoulos even though stubbornly getting what he wants a true bi-zonal federation eventually?

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/arti ... ewsid=7373

[boulio]

We need to recognize and accept certain facts and behave accordingly. One of these facts is the Republic of Cyprus.


this begining statement actually really thew me off,i think its the first time a turkish journelist actually refered to the ROC by its constitional name. [/b]

[cannedmoose]

I think he's slightly less persona non grata than he was last year when if he'd caught fire I doubt that many other EU leaders would have p***ed on him.

The fact that he didn't create chaos in Turkey-EU relations in the December 2004 Council has gone some way to ameliorate opinions about him. The hardball tactics employed by Erdogan in the same meeting also made some leaders step back and reassess their opinions of both men.

Although I'm no fan of TPap, on his behalf I'm sure he's found the transition to acting as a 'European' leader difficult. European Union leaders are increasingly not expected to adopt hard positions or make harsh public pronouncements, that's not the way to play the game. Just look at the European perception of Margaret Thatcher (the queen of posturing on the Euro-stage) during the 1980s, she was disliked by almost every other EU leader for her non-collegial stance.

Having read TPap's speech posted by Alexandros earlier today, the change in his language since last year is also marked. Perhaps if he continues in this light, the 'European solution' might be one step closer (so long as Christofias can keep his mouth shut for 5 minutes).

p.s. Impressed by Turkish Daily News new makeover, v.impressive compared to before

[brother]

MAB is a very good asseser of situations, and after nearly 10 years of reading his articles and watching his shows on t.v i realised one thing about the man, and that is however brutal the truth is that is always what he will tell you.

So guys imo whenever you read his column, even if you don't like it, its probably the truth.

[Viewpoint]

boulio

do people think that turkey and the t/c have dropped the ball by letting the momentum for voting yes in april slip away?and is pappadopoulos even though stubbornly getting what he wants a true bi-zonal federation eventually?

No to both questions, from what we gather from EU official visitors to North, they are slowly losing patience with southern cyprus and irreversable consequences will develop in the coming months. So the delay tactics of Mr Papdop will cost Greek Cypriots dearly in the long run.

[magikthrill]

No to both questions, from what we gather from EU official visitors to North, they are slowly losing patience with southern cyprus and irreversable consequences will develop in the coming months. So the delay tactics of Mr Papdop will cost Greek Cypriots dearly in the long run.

And that is what we call wishful thinking... And can you send me any recent (2-3 weeks) articles on EU official visitors to the North where you can justify your claim of "slowly losing patience"? Or is this what they told you personally?

[Viewpoint]

I have attended various meetings with a technical EU TAIEX Group here on the island, we have vistors from USAID, plus othe visitors.

[-mikkie2-]

Unfortunately, I don't agree with the sentiments expressed by Viewpoint. I think that the TC's are the ones that have gradually relented and step by step. An example is the Green Line regulation which the TC's have gradually implemented despite their earlier protestations. The EU has been equally blunt with the TC's, that they cannot hope to get direct trade by hampering the operation of the Green Line regulation! The obvious tactic of trying to plead poverty because of trade embargos when there is a clear way the TC's can benefit with the Green Line regulation has backfired on the TC leadership and Turkey as well.

So far, Tassos has been building up brownie points with the EU whilst Mr Erdogan has been busy dismantling the reputation he built up soon after coming to power.

[insan]

Arts and wiles of politics. You should thank to Christian Democrats of EU. It was a close shave with just 3 votes and iworth for trying by TC side. See you in the next round.

[Saint Jimmy]

F**k that...!
If them hating Tassos's guts is going to get us to a better place than we are now, then so be it - hate away, folks, knock yourselves out. If we're going to pay for it, well, we elected him, serves us right.
I would say that I agree with cannedmoose on this. He's (slowly) working his way back in the circle of trust, but his real crash test is yet to come, because I think he caught them all off guard the first time around.
I hope he knows what he's doing.

I'll tell you, I'll get really worried if I see him going to Brussels and he has his fingers crossed

P.S.: by the way, moose, what's this

Christofias

all about?