Cyprus-Forum.com

[YFred]

Christofias is being crippled by his brinkmanship
By Loucas Charalambous

PRESIDENT Christofias started his term in office a year ago based on a lamentable delusion: that by buttering up Garoyian, Omirou and Perdikis he would have a trouble-free stay at the presidential palace.

At the same time, it would have been possible to hold negotiations with Mehmet Ali Talat and in the event that he struck a deal, he calculated that this would be supported by his political allies.

He would on no account want to be in the same difficult position he found himself in back in 2004, when he was faced with a big dilemma. On the one hand, he knew that common sense and the history of his party dictated that he supported the Annan plan, while on the other, he realised that by so doing he would put AKEL in the same camp as the hated DISY. This would have alienated the parties with which AKEL had forged alliances over the previous three decades and on which Christofias relied to further his personal political ambitions.

This delusion has left its mark on the president’s first 12 months, a year of many contradictions. He is practising politics like a tightrope walker, attempting keeping a balance between two different needs – the need to persuade all those who want a settlement that he is doing everything he can towards this end and the need to constantly re-assure the rest that his stance is no less patriotic than the late Tassos Papadopoulos’.

He is chasing phantoms. He is trying to make progress at the talks while also resorting to the same sterile rhetoric used by Papadopoulos against ‘suffocating time-frames’, arbitration and other such nonsense, in the belief that this will keep the hard-liners happy. He now declares that the Annan plan, which he was praising in 2004 and urging the Security Council to guarantee its implementation – so he could support it – was the worst ever settlement plan. In short, he has become a hostage to his brinkmanship and cannot persuade anyone about his intentions.

When a confidential document about negotiations was leaked by a member of the National Council, it was nothing more than an inevitable consequence of the contradictions he stands for. The president seems to have been surprised by the leak, but why? What was so surprising? Is it possible to give a document to Perdikis, Syllouris, Koutsou, Omirou and Garoyian and then wonder how it appeared in a newspaper? He should have been surprised if the document had not been leaked.

You only need to take a look at the objective of all the above-mentioned politicians to know why. Their plan is to eliminate any possibility of a settlement. It was not the Annan plan which they rejected in 2004 but a settlement – any settlement. They have never made a secret of the fact that they do not want a settlement. They support partition and given their objective their actions are perfectly justifiable.

If the president considers the divulging of what is discussed at National Council meetings a problem, there is only one way to solve it – abolish this ludicrous institution. After all he campaigned for election as the ‘president of a settlement’ and he won. If he genuinely believes that Perdikis, Omirou and Garoyian are committed to helping him solve the Cyprus problem, it is Christofias who has a problem and not his allies.

If he does not understand that he cannot carry on playing this stupid game, balancing between two contradictory options, and if he does not accept that he will never solve the Cyprus problem with the help of Omirou, Garoyian and Perdikis, he will soon fall off the tightrope he has chosen to walk.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

[Bananiot]

In the meantime, at yesterday's elections for the DIKO party leadership, the extreme right won a landslide with young Nikolas Papadopoulos (Tasos's son) becoming vice President of the party. The moderstes were dealt a hefty blow. They say (those that lost) however, that 5 000 new members were enrolled on the eve of elections and given voting power.

[YFred]

Its nice to know nothings changed. God help us all if you believe in one.

[DT.]

In the meantime, at yesterday's elections for the DIKO party leadership, the extreme right won a landslide with young Nikolas Papadopoulos (Tasos's son) becoming vice President of the party. The moderstes were dealt a hefty blow. They say (those that lost) however, that 5 000 new members were enrolled on the eve of elections and given voting power.

Who made these accusations?

[YFred]

In the meantime, at yesterday's elections for the DIKO party leadership, the extreme right won a landslide with young Nikolas Papadopoulos (Tasos's son) becoming vice President of the party. The moderstes were dealt a hefty blow. They say (those that lost) however, that 5 000 new members were enrolled on the eve of elections and given voting power.

Who made these accusations?

The moderates, isn't it obvious. Should I google who the DIKO moderates are to inform you? Are you not even slightly concerened that such activities are taking place in an EU country?

[DT.]

In the meantime, at yesterday's elections for the DIKO party leadership, the extreme right won a landslide with young Nikolas Papadopoulos (Tasos's son) becoming vice President of the party. The moderstes were dealt a hefty blow. They say (those that lost) however, that 5 000 new members were enrolled on the eve of elections and given voting power.

Who made these accusations?

The moderates, isn't it obvious. Should I google who the DIKO moderates are to inform you? Are you not even slightly concerened that such activities are taking place in an EU country?

Yfred, this is a discussion about a country in the EU. I suggest someone who claims they belong to a regime that imports foreign nationals to alter national elections should keep quiet.

Bananiot. Who in DEKO made these claims, I'm not saying they weren't made I'm just wondering who made them.

[Piratis]

The Cypriot people and most parties in Cyprus want a true solution. A solution that would give us back our land and restore our human and democratic rights. Not just a mere agreement that will be labeled "solution" and "unification" when in practice it will de jure partition Cyprus into Turkish and Greek Cyprus, and will create more problems than the ones it will solve.

Christofias was elected to try to bring a true solution which is nothing like Annan plan, and it is based on this promise that the Cypriot people voted for him, and DIKO, EDEK and the Greens supported him in the second round. Without this support Christofias had absolutely no chance of winning.

Yet, traitors like Loucas Charalambous are asking from Christofias to commit treason as well, and do the opposite of what he was elected to do, and bring back something like the Annan plan which was rejected in the most clear and direct way by the vast majority of the Cypriot people.

During the elections there was only one candidate who supported the Annan plan during the referendum and continued to support it even after it was rejected by the vast majority of Cypriots. The Cypriot people "rewarded" that candidate with less than 1% of their votes, confirming once again that the Cypriot people want nothing like Annan plan, and even most of those who have voted "yes" (DISY) have now changed their mind.

This "journalist" calls for Christofias to go back on his promises and turn 180 degrees and do what a small minority of extremists like himself want him to do. Not only that but he wants Christofias to act dictatorially and ignore everybody else and the parties that their votes were needed in order for him to get elected.

Maybe he also wants Christofias to go back on his promise that any solution proposal will be placed in a referendum? Maybe this traitor Loucas Charalambous wants his Turkish solution imposed on the Cypriot people?

The extremists of the Loucas Charalampous camp represent less than 1.5% of the Cypriot people and should not associate themselves with Christofias. In the parliament elections their party didn't even win the 1.8% needed to win a seat in the parliament, and the candidate from their party won less than 1% in the presidential elections. Christofias did not support the Annan plan as they did, not then and not now. Time for them to realize that it is not one of their own extremists that was elected, and therefore the president will not act in the extremist way they want him to act.

[Bananiot]

Antigoni Papadopoulou said that the people that voted were "single use" meaning that they were brought to vote and left, perhaps until the next elections.

[Bananiot]

Also, it is worth noting that the three losing candidates and the party leader Karoyian, stayed away from the declaration ceremony which is very odd and of course gives food for thought on what is going on behind the scenes in DIKO.

[Bananiot]

Piratis please stop talking rubbish. Loucas Charalambous is a member of DISI and his party is probably the biggest at the moment. You talk about Christofias and the promises he gave to DIKO, EDEK and the Greens but you conveniently forget that Papadopoulos was voted President starting from 15% or less because that was the percentage base of DIKO in 2003. Do you not remember the pre election posters all over Cyprus with an almost smiling Papadopoulos reassuring the people that he will solve the Cyprus issue on the basis of the Annan Plan?