Bananiot wrote:HatterYou deliberately distort what I said. "Either put up or shut up" is a figure of speech, which you know full well is a challenge to you to substantiate your claims, rather than patronisingly evading the question and referring us to "go ask Verheugen". So don't insinuate doubts about who is democratically minded, when you continue to dismiss the democratic decision of the cypriots to reject the AP, just because you and a sad minority of 24% wanted to accept it.
You still haven't told us what false promise was made to Verheugen.
And to boot, you are propounding another myth, that the RoC government did not want a solution - its about time that you come off this "if you don't agree with the solution I want then you don't want a solution", it just doen't wash.
Which period do you refer to? The decision for cyprus to joion the EU was already taken at the level of EU heads of government and it was the conclusion of a process that started years previously. At no point was the process predicated on the outcome of the AP referendum.
"Just before the talks started" I suppose must mean just before Burgenstock. A lot of water went under the bridge between that time and the end of the Burgenstock tallks.
I said as much in a previous thread on this forum, the link to which you omitted in the Quote box.
Respecting the "sad" minority is a yardstick of how democratic and civilised a society is. During the referenda period, the "sad" minority could not promote their believes because if you dared put a YES sticker on your car, you would have a car no more. All YES kiosks were vandalised throughout Cyprus by the bigots. Pavlos of Kyrenia, promised us an eternal life in hell and you have the audacity to talk about the "sad" minority. Papadopoulos even prevented Verheugen from appearing on Cyprus TV to make a point.
When Verheugen goes public and in an astonishingly undiplomatic manner discloses that Papadopoulos deceived Europe, you would be a fool to pretend that nothing was taking place. At the time Verheugen was the EU Commissioner for Enllargement and we oftened boasted that he was a stauch supporter of Cyprus.
Really, Bananiot! Now you are insulting our intelligence. There was ample coverage and airtime given to the "Yes" proponents. Markides, Klerides, Anastasiades, Kasoulides, Papapetrou to name but a few. And these were not exactly inarticulate people. As for AKEL, their then general secretary spoke at great length in committe session in favour of making "yes" official party policy. Unfortunately for the "yes" wing of AKEL, the overwhelming feedback and pressure from the party membership was different. At the time, ex-president of ROC Klerides was making dramatic appeals in favour of "yes" (like "I would take oath on the holy gospel, ..blah, blah, blah, ... would rather die than see the terrible things that will befall Cyprus if we vote No, blah, blah, blah"). Kassoulides was joining in the scarmongering warning the cypriots that if they vote No the result for Cyprus would be worse than the "mikrasiatiki katastrofi", etc, etc. And to boot, Yiorgakis the zeibekiko dancer, leader of neo-"Pasok" in opposition at the time, descended on Cyprus in a much publicised visit, to exhort the cypriots to vote "yes" (at least the other lot in Athens took the position that it was a matter for the Cypriots to decide). Do you not remember any of those things or has something blotted them out of your memory? Two mainstream news papers, Alithia and Politis were openly in favour of "yes" and proppounded as much in their pages on a daily basis. The TV discussions programs gave ample air time to "yes" proponents, everyone watched them virtually on a daly basis. Was there no nefarious financing going on of previously unheard-of NGOs (in which "Yes" stalwarts were the main participants by coincidence - yeah, right!) with grants from abroad?
Whether Verheugen was respected in cyprus or not, it does not give him the right to try and influence the votes of the cypriot people. As I said in a previous post and you conveniently igmored it, the accession of Cyprus to EU membership was not predicated on accepting the AP. Verheugen's capacity was that of a EU civil servant and you yourself said that when asked, he said there were no issues to discuss with Papadopoulos, so why did he want to address the people of Cyprus?
Your are correct about one thing: the views of the minority, however "sad", should be respected. Respected, yes - obeyed by the majority, no -
emphatically no. But the shoe is on the other foot, isn't it, Bananiot? The way that many "yes" proponents have been conducting themselves ever since, hardly shows respect - anyone would think it is as if the majority should apologise for disagreeing with them. In this case, the majority have been very tolerant towards the "sad" minority, who even resort to insults towards the majority of the cypriot people (to name but one example, it is am insult of the most provocative and fascistic kind, if you preach that anyone who disagrees with your favourite solution does not want a solution, and it is an insult several times over when it is directed at a people who have been the victims of war crimes, betrayal, ethnic cleansing, napalm bombing et al). Tolerance to, and respect for, and unifying effort for synergy with "yes" people, in spite of their "yes" position, after the referendum was over, was certainly in evidence in the unchanged composition of the cabinet.
So how about showing some respect to the will of the majority, Bananiot? And how about not generalising at every opportunity to brand and label an entire people because of events instigated by an untypical few (whether "self"-motivated or wound up by provocateurs) ? Terrible crimes have been committed against the cypriots but they contnue, and succesfully at that, against all odds. They had to cope with napalm, betrayal, foreign invasion, ethnic cleansing, destruction, mendacious politicians, they had to work fucking hard to rebuild their country's economy from smithereens, they are a wounded People that stands up to a strong and brutal adversary, insisting on human rights and wanting to live in peace. Anyone would be proud to be a cypriot, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
