Cyprus-Forum.com

[Agios Amvrosios]

Greece wants fresh initiative to re-unite Cyprus

NEW GREEK Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni yesterday called for a fresh initiative to re-unite Cyprus, saying the Annan plan, which was rejected in a 2004 referendum, was obsolete.

Appointed in a Cabinet reshuffle last week, Bakoyianni, who is seen as conciliatory towards Greece’s arch-rival Turkey, said the island needed a new plan on the table to avoid another failure.

“(The next initiative) should be something new,” she said after meeting her visiting Cypriot counterpart, George Iacovou. “In the next stage we need to have success. No one can deal with another failure.”

The latest UN-brokered plan to re-unite the island was voted down by Greek Cypriots and supported by Turkish Cypriots. Cyprus remains a source of tension in Greek-Turkish relations and a major hurdle to Turkey’s EU path.

“The Annan plan, as it has been presented to the Cypriot people and was not accepted, is history,” said Bakoyianni, who had supported the plan at the time.

She said a new initiative “should be based on three planks, the European acquis, UN resolutions and the Annan plan”.

“Athens and Nicosia are pursuing a just solution, viable and functional on the basis of the decisions and resolutions of the UN, respecting EU values, and such a solution should undoubtedly be to the benefit of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” Bakoyianni said.
She added that “it is understood that for a viable and functional solution to emerge, it should be the product of an agreement and subsequently acceptable by both communities, an agreed solution that will be put to a referendum.”

The Greek minister said that within this framework “we support the resumption of a well-prepared negotiating procedure at the UN, without timeframes or mediation and one which will provide the guarantees for a successful outcome of the effort.”

Iacovou said President Tassos Papadopoulos would discuss new initiatives to kick start stalled negotiations in a meeting in Paris with Annan next Tuesday.

“Conditions are ripe, but our position is an initiative should be prepared very carefully and we are still at this phase,” said Iacovou.

EU member Cyprus warned last week it would veto Turkey’s European Union accession talks if Ankara did not meet EU obligations to open ports and airports to Cypriot traffic.
The EU expects Turkey to extend its customs union to all new EU members, including Cyprus, this year but Ankara wants trade restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots lifted in exchange.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan yesterday shrugged off the Cypriot threat to veto Ankara’s EU bid.

“We never take seriously... threats to suspend our EU negotiation process, especially over northern Cyprus,” the state Anatolian news agency quoted Erdogan as saying, in the first reaction by a senior Turkish official to Cyprus’s comments.

Turkey’s long-delayed EU entry talks were launched last October and are expected to last over a decade.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005

[macketterry]

The fundamentals of the A-Plan are what all negotiations for the past 32 years have been based on. To go back to the drawing board now is not on the agenda.

I suspect that this lady is paying lip service to the GC side's views while at the same time still backing the A-Plan albeit with a different moniker. I believe that she has been brought in to the picture to prove to the powers that be that Greece is genuinely trying to reach a settlement on this issue.

[Piratis]

Annan plan is dead. Null and void.

It is now made clear that Greek Cypriots will never accept a disguised partition (e.g. Annan plan) and the legalization of violations against their legal, human and democratic rights.

[BirKibrisli]

I think the basis for the new plan for Cypro solution should be the 1960 constitution.Turkey should pull out immidiately 10,000 of her soldiers and invite everyone to sit around a table(with Turkey, Greece and England as the guarantors of the R of C) to agree on a timetable and practical conditions for reuniting the island. This will call for compromises for both sides,for GCs because they will be going back to something they tried to forget about for 43 years hence giving up absolute power over the RoC,and for TCs because they will have to give up the TRNC.Hence both sides will show they are willing to compromise for the good of Cyprus.

[Piratis]

I think the basis for the new plan for Cypro solution should be the 1960 constitution.

I agree with that Bir. Some TCs forget that 1960 agreements were a huge compromise for Greek Cypriots. In fact 1960 agreements gave to TCs more power than any other minority of their size in the whole world.

Therefore it is clear that GCs will not agree to a deal that is even worst than that. If TCs want something more that the 1960 agreements (e.g. federal state) they should give something up of equal weight (e.g. accept less veto powers) so the new agreement will have the same balance as the 1960 agreements had and nobody will win on the loss of another.

[Michael]

Nobody in the right mind believes that Greeks can ever accept a plan hobbled together by GB and US and swallowed up whole by that nappy wearing lickspittle that was our previous leader.
The Turks hope of duplicitous diplomacy by Dora should not be dismissed. However if she is as cack-handed at foreign affairs as that second rate father of hers then I don’t think we have much to worry about.

[Agios Amvrosios]

The fundamentals of the A-Plan are what all negotiations for the past 32 years have been based on. To go back to the drawing board now is not on the agenda

Timely turkish EU accession depends on one thing going back to the drawing board.

[bg_turk]

Annan plan is dead. Null and void.

Precisely, the Turkish Cypriot Yes vote has now been nullified and the Turkish Cypriots have no obligations under this plan whatsoever.

Never again will Turkish Cypriots make so many political concessions.

Greek Cypriots who want their properties back, shall be welcomed to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The territorial integrity and soveregntiy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is inviolable.

[Leonidas]

Blah blah blah blah blah blah
The US and UK blah blah blah and the US and UK blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Sounds like a broken record playing the same story over and over and over.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

blah blah blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

[Agios Amvrosios]

Greek Cypriots who want their properties back, shall be welcomed to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

-If Greek Cypriots are allowed back into places like Kyrenia then Turkish Cypriots will be restricted to 8% of the land by value a nd will be a minority of less than 18 % as Kyrenia had a smaller turkish population than the rest of Cyprus pre 1974.