by Kikapu » Sun May 25, 2008 12:38 pm
Bananiot,
As Kifeas said, that BBF has been on the table for a long time, so there are no surprises there as to how the future political scene is going to look like to achieve a settlement, except of course an agreed partition on agreed land distribution or the status quo as being the other options. The question is how everyone is interpreting the BBF, and if you asked a man on the street what a Federation is, it will not be anywhere near what 2004 AP was, so if we are going to interpret BBF as an Federation, then we need to move past the AP, since I maintain it to be a Confederation and not a Federation, at to make matters worse, it was worse case possible for a "settlement". When you said the AP was "complicated", you were not kidding. But forget what I think of the AP, but look at what the 76% of GC's thought of AP, and since the last 4 years, people in Cyprus has been more aware what the AP entailed and will be ready to challenge the new settlement agreements with very watchful eyes, so that there are no room for errors on the next settlement, because the slightest imbalanced in one communities favour over the other, will produce a "NO" result. The TC's building "Red Lines" on many of the "hot topics" will certainly bring a rejection from the GC's, and at the same time, it is going to be very difficult for the TC's to come down from their "ivory tower" to accept anything less than the AP. This is why the AP was the worse plan at the time then as it is now. It has raised the expectations of one community and lowered the other. The two are polarizing the other.
The more interesting of the negotiations are going to come when the TC's will need to make compromises on Property rights, Guarantor's rights, freedom of movement, foreign troops in Cyprus and so on. Christofias may have agreed to something between a Federation and a Confederation as some fear as being in TC's favour at the moment to open up the talks to give the talks a "positive" atmosphere to keep the process going. As Christofias make demands for the TC's to move from their "Red Lines" on certain topics, it is when he will start taking back some of the "benefits" he is now offering to the TC's as he gets less in return in what he is asking. In my opinion, what he has offered at the moment, what are mostly already in the 1960 Constitution, so he does not feel like he is giving away the "store". Establishing a 2 Federal states under one government is also well understood by everyone for a long time. The interpretation by the GC's will be a "Federation" and to the TC's a "Confederation", because the latter allows the possibility to divorce from the Union at a later date, if they wished to once the north has been accepted as a "Turkish State" and not just a north state in a Federation. If you don't believe me Bananiot, ask any TC's on this forum to embrace a True Federation over a Confederation and see what your answer will be.
The TC's will always want to have the option to secede from the Union if need be, and this is the reason why any settlement under a AP BBF type is a support of a partition, if not directly, indirectly. So let me see you sell a True Federation to VP types who are the true NeoPartitionist from Denktash's followers. The truth is, you will not be able to do it Bananiot, so don't even waste your time. It is this Confederation concept is that is most dangerous for all Cypriots for further conflicts in the future and more bloodshed. If I had to choose this or an agreed partition on an agreed land distribution, I will too choose this option to save us from further heartaches down the road. If on the other hand we as Cypriots want to maintain the integrity of Cyprus as one country but two seperate states where the TC's and GC's are majority in each of their respected states, for the purpose of safeguarding their security, then Federation is the one that makes more sense.
All nationalisms lead in the same direction.
