Kikapu wrote:Tim Drayton wrote:YFred raises an interesting point. The evidence presented by Ahmet An suggests that Turkey was trying to ensure a victory by the UBP in the 2003 elections. For example:
3.27.3 Ordinary people were brought in from Turkey to attend the meetings of the UBP. It
was reported that seven buses full of such people were carried by ferry-boat to Famagusta and
the expenses were paid by Mustafa Ozbek, leader of the Turkish Metal-Sen Trade Union.
(Kibris, 11.12.03)
3.27.4 Kibris reported that the UBP hired people from the poor quarters of Nicosia, eg
Kaimakli and the old city, for 20 million TL to populate the Ataturk Stadium during the music
festival of the UBP. (Kibris, 21.11.03)
3.28.6 Excerpt from a letter sent to the columnist Mebmet Altan at
www.gazetem.net by a
25 year-old Turkish Cypriot unemployed university graduate: "I would like to refer to an
operation executed in the Karpas region.a region mostly populated by Turkish settlers.on
the night before the elections. .
.On that night, the Turkish generals visited the villages in the
Karpas area one by one and told the people that "no vote would be given to the opposition."Incredible threats were aired. Words like this were uttered: "If the opposition wins from the
ballot boxes of this region, all of you will be sent to Turkey." If you look at the distribution of
votes by region, you will see that these threats helped since the opposition received less than
20% of the vote there." (Ortam, 18.12.03)
Yet, the CTP emerged as the victors in this lection. This certainly contradicts the view expressed by the people at Afrika newspaper, who argue that it was Turkey which brought the CTP into power in 2003 because it suited her interests to do so.
Tim,
Don't let YFred lead you astray too much with his smoking mirrors theories regarding the elections in 2003 as to why CTP won and UBP did not, because YFred's knowledge and understanding of Politics, is very much One Dimensional to say the least. He has a long way to go yet before he can see things politically in a Two Dimensional way, which means he misses a lot of information that are on the surface, under the surface, and way under the surface. I believe is the maximum YFred's political elevator will ever go up to.!
It was not Turkey who was behind Denktash and the UBP but the Generals as the above article clearly states. Since when does the Turkish civilian government control what the Generals do.? If anything, it is the Generals who tell the government what to do for a very long time, and it is only in recent times that the civilian government have been tolerated by the Generals, only because US tells them to do so. It was the Generals who supported the UBP and not the Turkish Government, therefore Africa did get it right by stating that CTP won with Turkey's backing, because Turkey knew, that if Denktash was in power, the GC's for sure were going to vote NO on the Annan Plan, because Denktash who was in power for close to 30 years without any serious attempt to have peace was not trusted by the GC's, because they knew that as far as Denktash was concerned, Cyprus problems were over in 1974, therefore he could not careless having any peace with the GC's, even if it meant it would eventually benefit Turkey to get into the EU.
Turkey needed a YES vote on the AP, not only from the TC's, but more importantly, from the GC's. Had the GC's said yes to AP, Turkey would not be in the problems she is today with her EU ambitions, and she would have had greater control over the whole island and it's waters and airspace. CTP was the
"Trojan Horse" for Turkey to get the YES vote on the AP, and not because they were there to have a genuine peace, as perhaps what the people in the streets may have thought at the time just because they were sold a lot of "damaged goods" in believing in that, but Turkey was only looking after her own interests first. Denktash and the UBP could not have delivered the YES vote Turkey needed therefore Turkey had ZERO intentions backing them. The Generals and Denktash were very happy with the way things were and were not in need for any changes, hence the fact reportedly said after the AP failed he said, "Thank God the GC's said NO". In actual fact, had the AP was a YES with it's totally one sided so called "peace plan", Denktash would have been happy with the final outcome, since it would have lead into a official partition of the island, and most of all the settlers would have stayed along with the military, therefore I don't buy into what he reportedly said after the AP vote. I think it was a cheap shot aimed at Turkey was sidelining him for the CTP.
Why do you think all the NeoPartitionist and all the leadership in the north never stop talking about the Annan Plan well after 5 years has gone by.? Because
"it's the one that got away" and had UBP won in 2003, the AP would have lost that same very day. CTP gave Turkey some hope, but hope was enough, because in the end, Turkey killed the goose that would have laid the golden eggs by adding more and more unacceptable terms into the AP, and Papadapolous just let it happen without raising an objection, because he was after the EU membership, and got it, in effect, outfoxing everyone. Had the AP was more balance, there could have been a YES vote, but Turkey did not want a balanced plan. In the end, Turkey did not get what she wanted, and the RoC did, with or without a YES on the AP.
