Cyprus-Forum.com

[Lit]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oc ... talks-nazi

President of Cyprus likens EU-Turkey relations to Nazi appeasement

Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias warns concessions to Ankara could backfire as talks on divided island hit trouble

Ian Traynor in Brussels
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 October 2009 14.07 GMT

The president of Cyprus today urged Europe to get tough with Turkey, likening the EU's concessions to Ankara to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, and playing down expectations of any breakthrough in the quest for a settlement of 35 years of partition in Cyprus.

Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader and Cypriot president, said that more than a year of negotiations with his Turkish Cypriot friend and counterpart, Mehmet Ali Talat, were in trouble.

"Unfortunately, my expectations have not been justified," he said in an interview. "We have differences and divergences, deep, deep differences."

Christofias's gloomy remarks ran counter to diplomats' hopes that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders represented the best chance for a settlement in a generation.

Both leaders, personal friends who are both on the left, have been conducting negotiations for more than a year. Talat, however, is widely tipped to lose power in presidential elections in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus next April to nationalist hardliners, so the duo may have only months to strike a deal. Cyprus has been divided since a Turkish military invasion in 1974.

Christofias rejected talk of a deadline as artificial and suggested the Turkish side was exploiting Talat's electoral problems to blackmail him.

If the talks fail, warned Hans Van Den Broek, the former Dutch foreign minister who sits on the Independent Commission on Turkey, "the island will certainly head towards partition. Tensions will rise in the eastern Mediterranean and EU-Turkey tension will deepen."

With much at stake in the Cyprus talks, Christofias laid a large part of the blame for the stalemate on the Turkish leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We don't agree on anything with Mr Erdogan," he said.

Hopes for a solution to the Cyprus problem have been raised by the approach adopted by Greece's new prime minister, George Papandreou, who visited Turkey shortly after he was elected, where he met Erdogan. Christofias's negative comments reveal how difficult the task will be.

The fate of the Cyprus settlement talks is crucial to Turkey's bid to join the EU. Swathes of the complex membership negotiations between Ankara and Brussels are frozen because of Greek Cypriot objections.

Christofias warned that any European concessions to Ankara to keep Turkey on a pro-European path could backfire.

"I don't compare Turkey with Nazi Germany," he said. "But it is not reasonable to say don't challenge Turkey because it will get angry. There are rules and unfortunately Turkey does not respect those rules ... This reminds me of the situation before the second world war, appeasing Hitler so he doesn't become more aggressive. The substance of fascism was the substance of fascism. Hitler was Hitler."

[Lit]

Cyprus downbeat on unification talks

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7509f4d4-c47c ... ab49a.html

By Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: October 29 2009 14:25 | Last updated: October 29 2009 14:25

Demetris Christofias, president of Cyprus, painted a gloomy picture on Thursday of the prospects for overcoming the island’s division, saying negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots were making little progress.

“Unfortunately, I must say my expectations, and the expectations of the great majority of the people of Cyprus of both communities, have not been justified up to now,” Mr Christofias told reporters in Brussels, where he was preparing for a European Union summit.

Cyprus has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island in response to a Greek-inspired coup aimed at absorbing Cyprus into Greece.

Mr Christofias, leader of the internationally recognised republic of Cyprus, and Mehmet Ali Talat, leader of a secessionist Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus that no country except Turkey recognises, opened talks in September 2008 on reuniting the country as a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

Experts on the Cyprus dispute say the talks are approaching a critical moment because Mr Talat, widely regarded as a moderate who is keen on a settlement, faces a presidential election next April that he appears in danger of losing to a hardline candidate.

However, Mr Christofias said: “These are artificial deadlines. Talat must show more understanding, instead of putting forward intransigent positions. Otherwise, it’s blackmail. I’m not a political fellow who accepts blackmail. I’m ready for a solution before April.”

The EU and US are keen to keep the talks alive, fearing that a breakdown will wreck Turkey’s EU membership bid and hobble efforts to forge closer relations between the EU and Nato.

Mr Christofias put much of the blame on Turkey’s political and military leadership, saying: “The main problem for me is that Turkey must assist in a solution of the Cyprus problem. They must recognise the Republic of Cyprus. They refuse.”

He said he had made a concession by offering citizenship of a reunited Cypriot state to 50,000 Anatolian Turks who have settled in northern Cyprus since 1974. The precise number of Turkish settlers on Cyprus is disputed. Many estimates run to more than 100,000.

Mr Christofias laughed as he described Mr Talat’s response. “He said to me: ‘There are no settlers, there are only citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.’”

Mr Talat, interviewed by the Financial Times in September, said the present talks were “the last chance for a solution”.

Both sides say property disputes are an especially difficult issue, with many Greek Cypriots who lost their homes after 1974 wanting them back, and Turkish Cypriot negotiators defending the new owners and emphasising compensation for the dispossessed. “We have deep, deep differences here,” Mr Christofias said.

Another disagreement concerns a Turkish Cypriot demand for equal numerical representation in some 50 institutions, such as the island’s central bank and competition authority, Mr Christofias said.

Turkish Cypriots accounted for about 20 per cent of Cyprus’s population in 1974, but tens of thousands have since left the island, with arrivals from mainland Turkey more than making up the difference.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

[Tim Drayton]

Cyprus downbeat on unification talks

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7509f4d4-c47c ... ab49a.html

By Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: October 29 2009 14:25 | Last updated: October 29 2009 14:25

Demetris Christofias, president of Cyprus, painted a gloomy picture on Thursday of the prospects for overcoming the island’s division, saying negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots were making little progress.

“Unfortunately, I must say my expectations, and the expectations of the great majority of the people of Cyprus of both communities, have not been justified up to now,” Mr Christofias told reporters in Brussels, where he was preparing for a European Union summit.

Cyprus has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island in response to a Greek-inspired coup aimed at absorbing Cyprus into Greece.

Mr Christofias, leader of the internationally recognised republic of Cyprus, and Mehmet Ali Talat, leader of a secessionist Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus that no country except Turkey recognises, opened talks in September 2008 on reuniting the country as a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

Experts on the Cyprus dispute say the talks are approaching a critical moment because Mr Talat, widely regarded as a moderate who is keen on a settlement, faces a presidential election next April that he appears in danger of losing to a hardline candidate.

However, Mr Christofias said: “These are artificial deadlines. Talat must show more understanding, instead of putting forward intransigent positions. Otherwise, it’s blackmail. I’m not a political fellow who accepts blackmail. I’m ready for a solution before April.”

The EU and US are keen to keep the talks alive, fearing that a breakdown will wreck Turkey’s EU membership bid and hobble efforts to forge closer relations between the EU and Nato.

Mr Christofias put much of the blame on Turkey’s political and military leadership, saying: “The main problem for me is that Turkey must assist in a solution of the Cyprus problem. They must recognise the Republic of Cyprus. They refuse.”

He said he had made a concession by offering citizenship of a reunited Cypriot state to 50,000 Anatolian Turks who have settled in northern Cyprus since 1974. The precise number of Turkish settlers on Cyprus is disputed. Many estimates run to more than 100,000.

Mr Christofias laughed as he described Mr Talat’s response. “He said to me: ‘There are no settlers, there are only citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.’”

Mr Talat, interviewed by the Financial Times in September, said the present talks were “the last chance for a solution”.

Both sides say property disputes are an especially difficult issue, with many Greek Cypriots who lost their homes after 1974 wanting them back, and Turkish Cypriot negotiators defending the new owners and emphasising compensation for the dispossessed. “We have deep, deep differences here,” Mr Christofias said.

Another disagreement concerns a Turkish Cypriot demand for equal numerical representation in some 50 institutions, such as the island’s central bank and competition authority, Mr Christofias said.

Turkish Cypriots accounted for about 20 per cent of Cyprus’s population in 1974, but tens of thousands have since left the island, with arrivals from mainland Turkey more than making up the difference.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

You naughty boy!

[insan]

The final cryings of Chris... end of the game... everyone will go to their own ways...

[Get Real!]

The final cryings of Chris... end of the game... everyone will go to their own ways...

So have you bought your one-way ticket to Turkey yet?

[insan]

The final cryings of Chris... end of the game... everyone will go to their own ways...

So have you bought your one-way ticket to Turkey yet?

No it's 2 way ticket... Recognized TRNC to Turkey to recognized TRNC.

[bill cobbett]

"President of Cyprus likens EU-Turkey relations to Nazi appeasement"

We've referred to this Appeasement word a few times in recent days.

OMG! Our Beloved Pres X must follow CF!

[YFred]

You will be dragged into the 21st century whether you like it or not dear billy boy, with or without your fustanella.


Talking of tickets to Turkey, can any of our TC Londoners advise whether and how much tax we pay when we visit Turkiya from Londonistan with a dodgy UK passport.

[bill cobbett]

The other word we've used is Capitulation.

No Capitulation Pres X!

[insan]

Funny Chris said:

With much at stake in the Cyprus talks, Christofias laid a large part of the blame for the stalemate on the Turkish leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We don't agree on anything with Mr Erdogan," he said.

When did he talk or negotiate with Erdogam? This man is really too funny. He assumes his dreams as true.