Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kikapu]

Recriminations follow Erdogan visit
By Jean Christou

GREEK Cypriot politicians yesterday piled on the criticism over Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the north at the weekend.

“This visit happened at an inopportune time,” Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told London Greek Radio.

“Now we trying to create a new climate with the objective of beginning direct negotiations between the two leaders.”

President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat are due to meet on Friday and review whether conditions exist for the start of fully-fledged negotiations, but the atmosphere has not been cordial since they last met on July 1.

Erdogan’s visit to attend Turkish Cypriot celebrations for the anniversary of the 1974 invasion have not helped.

Opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades said yesterday that Erdogan’s comments had intensified suspicion about Turkey’s motives and had reinforced the psychological barrier that existed under the previous government.

During his two-day visit to the north, Erdogan spoke of a new state of affairs in Cyprus under the “virgin birth” principle, something that the Greek Cypriot side has said it would not accept under any circumstances.

The Turkish Prime Minster spoke of speedy negotiations and said Turkey would support the process started by the two leaders in March this year.

“Our expectation is for the comprehensive negotiations to proceed speedily and reach the target of a new partnership in harmony with the principle of ‘virgin birth’ between two equal peoples,” said Erdogan.

After meeting on Saturday, Erdogan and Talat issued a joint statement of common ground on a number of issues. Talat said he hoped a date for negotiations would be announced with Christofias on Friday.

“Thus, we will start the process for the solution of the Cyprus problem. It is a very big guarantee for us to know that Turkey is by our side during this process,” he said.

“We are pleased with the efforts of the two leaders,” Erdogan said. “We expect the leaders to agree on the commencement of the comprehensive negotiations under the roof of the UN, based on the realities existing on the island and within the framework of the good will mission of the UN Secretary-General.”

He said the solution must be based on equality, two founding states and a new partnership relation. He said the solution would be reached between “two equal peoples”. Turkey’s guarantee power would also have to remain in place, he said.

Asked to comment on Christofias’ statement regarding his visit to the north, Erdogan said: “The government of the Republic of Turkey takes no one’s permission as to where, when, why and how it will go. It is itself that decides for this programme. Furthermore, we have always been on the side of freedom and peace struggle and we will continue to be. This is the place we are on this issue. Exhibiting such an approach is actually an expression of how far they are away from peace. They should not expect from us a different expression.”

He said Christofias should approach the problem positively “like Talat” in order for results to be achieved.

“The other side has to accept that the solution will be reached by establishing a new partnership between two equal peoples and to give up trying to find new interlocutors and divert attention,” he said. “Everybody should now understand that the efforts of south Cyprus to take the Turkish Cypriot people under their domination and to expand their sovereignty over the north of the island are in vain.”

Talat said the Turkish Cypriots wanted to sign “an honourable and respected agreement” with the Greek Cypriot people, “with whom we are forced to share the island”.

“It is out of the question for us to be patched up to the Greek Cypriot sovereignty or to leave the sovereignty to the Greek Cypriots,” Talat said.

“Despite the fact that there is no reason to justify the Greek Cypriot side under the leadership of Christofias to evade the negotiations, we were unable until today to announce the starting date of the fully-fledged negotiations. The Greek Cypriot side has always run away from this.”



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=40451

[Nikitas]

Reading the above you have to ask the obvious- if we had 200 fighter jets, 400 tanks, 10 submarines, would Erdogan say that he is free to go where he pleases?

It was the mentality of a bimbachi, a couple of hundred years out of date.

[roseandchan]

i still feel that turkey is saying one thing and talat is saying another.

[Nikitas]

The TCs left it too late. They could have claimed their freedom from Turkey back in the 80s, now that they form only a quarter of the population in the north they can't do it. So they bow their heads and accept everything Turkey dishes out. They have no excuse on this one, they saw how Greece treated the GCs, they should have known it would happen to them too.

[Cem]

The TCs left it too late. They could have claimed their freedom from Turkey back in the 80s, now that they form only a quarter of the population in the north they can't do it. So they bow their heads and accept everything Turkey dishes out. They have no excuse on this one, they saw how Greece treated the GCs, they should have known it would happen to them too.

Could you elaborate your latter sentence pls ? I mean, could you explain in details as to how Greece treated GCs ?
Just out of curiosity...

[DT.]

The TCs left it too late. They could have claimed their freedom from Turkey back in the 80s, now that they form only a quarter of the population in the north they can't do it. So they bow their heads and accept everything Turkey dishes out. They have no excuse on this one, they saw how Greece treated the GCs, they should have known it would happen to them too.

Could you elaborate your latter sentence pls ? I mean, could you explain in details as to how Greece treated GCs ?
Just out of curiosity...

overthrew the govt and orchestrated a betrayal.

[paliometoxo]

right if greece dident stick their man sampson in charge by force turkey would not have had the excuse to invade...

[Nikitas]

Cem asked:

"Could you elaborate your latter sentence pls ? I mean, could you explain in details as to how Greece treated GCs ?
Just out of curiosity..."

Greece, like Turkey, saw Cyprus as territory to be gained without much risk. This policy was discussed in some detail in a major debate in the Greek parliament some years ago. I listened fascinated at how the policy of the 1960s government was in fact a policy of a takeover of the island. It was risk free of course because if it did not work out then Greece would not be risking any of its own territory.

Then came the dictatorship which accepted partition and double union. For corroboration see the speeches of dictator Papadopoulos re a woman having two lovers etc which is how he saw Cyprus.

During the dictatorship the Cyprus National Guard was officered by mainland Greek officers who were rabid anticommunists. They divided the population into "nationally minded" and the rest. They recruited spies among the soldiers and had them spy on their villages and report on who was a nationalist and who was not.

And then we got the coup and the rest is pretty well known in this forum.

Greek Cypriots were treated as some kind of semi Greek of a lower order. The mainlanders could not understand that Cyprus had not had a civil war, therefore did not have the anticommunist spychosis of Greece. THey also overlooked the fact that Cyprus had a modern administration system and had accomplished economically more in ten years than Greece had in 130.

This is how Cypriots were treated. Luckily GCs fought back during the coup, Makarios survived and returned to the island and GCs managed to rebound economically even with one third of their number as refugees, and with severe loss of resources. No one starved, no children were sent abroad for adoption, as happened in Greece after the civil war and is happening in Eastern Europe today. Society held together and Cyprus joined the EU after meeting or exceeding all EU standards. And if you read between the lines of Greek papers you can see some resentment for this success.

[Cem]

Thanks Nikitas for the info.
Well I am not proficient in contemporaneous Greece's history but I reckon those who orchestrated this coup in July 15 were the same guys that are implicitly meant in Costa Gavras' film "Z" (translated as "Ölümsüz"(Immortal) in Turkish).
As you know, the theme revolves around the assassination of left-winger deputy G. Lambriakis (starring Yves Montand) and the successive events leading to the involvement of colonels' junta.

[Nikitas]

Cem,

Yes there were connections. Post WWII Greek history is marked by the civil war of 1946-49. Greece had just come out of WWII in which a almost a milliion people (10 per cent of population) had been lost and gotinvolvedin the civil war in which another half million perished. Everything was marked by the civil war and the army and civil service were geared towards excluding communists from public life.

Now just think how the officers who came to Cyprus in the 1960s, and had lived (if they had not served) through the civil war, looked on a society which had a legal communist party and where half the votes for the president came from communists! They were on an anti communist crusade and this fell nicely in line with American policy at the time.