by Bananiot » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:36 pm
Kikapu, I can't really see how your answer ties up with what I wrote. True, Turkey was the intransigent part for many years, after 19974. In fact, the conventional wisdom was that the issue was solved in 1974.
Thus, to take it from where you left it, the Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, together with Glafkos Klerides (both, men of great vision), worked out a comprehensive plan to try to force Turkey to change her tune. However, this could only materialise if Cyprus became a member of the European union. The European Union could only allow Cyprus to join the exclusive club with her problem unsolved only if it remained steadfast on a course for solution on the basis of the Makarios-Denktash and Kyprianou-Denktash agreements.
Simitis and Klerides worked hard to convince the EU of our sincere wish for solution. We had good friends in the EU at the time, because of our sensible policies and together we managed to make Turkey backtrack (for the first time since 1974) and admit that in Cyprus there existed a problem that needed to be solved. Until then, Turkey threatened loudly that if Cyprus was ever accepted into the EU, her response would be unprecedented. We convinced the EU that we could not remain forever hostages to Turkey since we were the part that sincerely wanted solution. The idea was that once we were in we could pressurise Turkey, with the help of our friends, to shed her intransigence and come to the negotiation table to look for solution. You see, Turkey had her sights too on the European Union now.
For a while things moved the way they were planned. The people of Cyprus on both sides of the divide were very excited. There was an air of expectation that something really good would happen. The gloom was begging to lift until the environment changed dramatically. In Greece Simitis stepped down and George Papandreou lost the elections. In Cyprus Klerides was replaced by Papadopoulos in February 2003. Papadopoulos, a well known nationalist and chauvinist who never saw the Turkish Cypriots as our compatriots, set his sights on spoiling the day. He managed to trick Christofias that he would work to solve the Cyprus issue on the basis of the Annan plan (no. 3 at the time which he would negotiate to better it, as he was a self confessed great negotiator). He also fooled our friends in the international community who bent over backwards to get us into the European union, with the Cyprus issue still unsolved. From the first day he took the wheel he made it his life mission to bankrupt the negotiations. Because he did not want to appear as the part that was responsible fro the breakdown in the negotiations, he sent an urgent letter to the SG of the UN in December 2003 asking for talks on the double because he was sure that if Cyprus became a member of the EU with her problem unsolved, we would head straight for Europartition, as he called it. Papadopoulos never banked, however, on the possibility that a Turkish Cypriot leader would call his bluff.
When Talat said, right lets get down and solve it, cold sweat run down the forehead of Papadopoulos. For him now, only one issue existed. To negotiate the plan in such a way as to make the people take the responsibility for its rejection. This immoral tactics, he thought, would allow him to say that look, we did our best but the plan is so bad it cannot be accepted by the people. What else can I do? I tried my best to arrive at a viable and functional solution but the one I was offered was simply not good enough.
Cyprus is now a member of the EU and Turkey is trying to get in. Some people seem to think that we alone can shape the future of Turkey and that the accession of Turkey depends on Cyprus. This is a misconception to say the least. We have lost our leverage by not sticking to an agreed agenda and thus we carry no weight in the EU now. Not only because we are small but also because we are light headed. Turkey's future will not be shaped by Cyprus. In fact, when we tried to question her credentials we were pushed aside like we were nobody. Chapter after chapter is opening for Turkey and we are just sorry onlookers. Our position in the EU is getting more precarious by the day and now we are seen to side with the Russians and go against the wishes of our stakeholders.
Kikapu, I hope you see that we are nothing in the EU. We are the laughing stock of the other 26 members and we have lost the great leverage we had on Turkey and thus we lost all hope of finding a solution. The Papadopoulos government has condemned Cyprus to partition because the people that surround Papadopoulos are the extreme nationalists who brought on us the calamity in the first place!
