Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

Kill Memory
2004-11-02 | Politis | ΓΙΩΡΓΟΥ ΚΑΣΚΑΝΗ
If one eliminates human memory absolute control is achieved. Thus, if one manages to say and do whatever he/she wants, without being concerned about conflicting brutally with whatever he/she has said or did the day before, he/she would have abolish concepts such as “consistency” and “seriousness”. So, one should be flexible according to what personal survival requires and never and none would say, “It is not what you’ve said yesterday”. As we’ve already said, elimination of memory is one of the basic elements for the control of the mass. And in politics, this is very important…

On Saturday night, all television channels broadcasted the speech of Mr. Demetris Christofias to some party meeting. If Mr. Christofias was quoted correctly, he said: “the choice to reject the Annan plan was vindicated, because it would not satisfy even the slightest aspirations of the Cypriot people”. However, Mr. Papadopoulos has used that phrase in his notorious declaration, not Mr. Christofias. With the purpose to preserve memory, in such difficult times, we recall what Mr. Christofias has said in AKEL Convention, on April 14th:
“…. The objective, sober, scientific analysis of the Fifth Annan plan, which is now in front of us, lead us to the following basic discoveries:
- Cyprus is reunited with the Annan plan. The Cypriot Republic is turn into a bicommunal, bizonal federation under the name United Cypriot Republic, a single sovereign state, with single international personality and one single nationality.
- The occupation ends through gradual withdrawal of more than 39,000 military forces.
- The gradual return of 85,000 or 90,000 refugees under Greek Cypriot administration is achieved. The right to return under Turkish Cypriot administration is gradually consolidated through many difficulties and obstacles.
- In general, human rights and basic freedoms are gradually restored
- Effective mechanisms to overcome deadlocks caused by the 1960 Constitution are provided.
- The transitional period is limited to 45 days only. All state organs would be in force from the first minute.
- The percentage of people coming from Turkey would be restricted to 5% of the population that would possess citizenship of the newly established Turkish Cypriot state, for 19 years or until Turkey would join the EU. Then, a special law on citizenship would be enforced, protecting the demographic composition of the island from being altered.
- Cyprus would have Central Bank and the Cypriot pound would remain the currency of the country
- In long terms, opens the prospect of real reunification and peaceful co-existence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots”.

Of course, the Secretary General of the communist party AKEL pointed out the weak points of the Annan plan on security, settlers and the preservation of Greek and Turkish military forces in Cyprus. Nevertheless, that image was far off the present discoveries.

So, kill memory. It would make things easier…



Do you still expect a solution to Cyprus Problem?

[Bananiot]

You know my viwes Insan, but I do not agree with your title. Talat kept his side of the bargain. Christofias, is still second in command in Cyprus, albeit half of it. Had he voted "yes" he stood to lose so much ... no my friend, we allowed history to pass by on April 24. Cyprus has been partitioned, the sooner we accept this the quicker we would get on with our lives.

[brother]

I find that hard to accept that opportunity missed we done with, thats like being a half empty glass when clearly the attitude should be half glass full.

[-mikkie2-]

Bananiot,

This was not an opportunity missed. This was an opportunity to get Turkey off the hook and to get her into the EU and to keep the Cypriots quiet.

It was an opportunity missed in the sense that the plan was not properly negotiated.

The time that the plan should have been accepted was in 2003, but it was Denktas that trashed the talks and refused to negotiate. At the time Clerides would probably have had the support of the GC's and he probably would have made the plan better and more acceptable.

And the irony is that Turkey would have been in a better position as well. Now she is on the back foot, with the looming threat of veto.

To conclude, Bananiot, don't sit and balme the GC's for what has happened. This is the result of the failure of both communities to be honest with each other over the whole period in which the A plan was in existance.

Now, the situation has changed. Whether it is for the better or for the worse, nobody really knows, but there are still plenty of opportunities for the problem to be solved in the near future. December 17th will be the crucial date.

If Turkey gets to start negotiations then she has to either recognise the RoC or sit down and allow the problem to be solved before her accession negotiations start in earnest in the latter part of 2005. Leaving things as they are is not an option.

[Bananiot]

Have you read what Gul had to say yesterday? His revealing statement says it all. No more, he said, we find the Cyprus issue in front of us, in our EU endeavours. This means, Turkey is considered by the big players, the ones that matter, as having done her duty. Prior to April 24 Turkey was on the recieving end. Now, even Greece has agreed to dissociate the Cyprus issue from the essence of the turgo-greek relations. We are all alone. In splendid isolation. Think of this. If America can decide unilaterally on the Macedonia issue, without consulting her partner and ally Greece, imagine what they have installed for us. The bill is on the way. We will have to pay it. Things are made much worse by the wild public accusations of our undiplomatic President, that America is interfering in our internal affairs. I am scared and I become more scared when I listen to our rulers speak. I have never seen such a bunch of idiots. Anyway, what you wrote about Klerides is quite interesting.

[metecyp]

December 17th will be the crucial date.

Crucial date for what? If you mean crucial date for recognition of RoC by Turkey, you might be right. If you mean crucial date for a solution, you're dead wrong (unless you consider recognition of RoC by Turkey as solution). Today is November 5th, December 17th is only 1.5 months away. There are no negotiations between TCs and GCs. There's nothing scheduled for negotiations either. You think the problem will solve itself? What are you talking about?

[-mikkie2-]

Bananiot,

You are at it again. Doooom and gloooom. Are you always this pessimistic?

Gul can say what he wants! It is the EU that will decide when Turkey starts negotiations, not Turkey. Gul is a politician I do not have much respect for because he continually contradicts himself. I do not believe that we are all alone. It may seem that way but on the contrary I think there are plenty of people that understand and appreciate our part of the argument. The EU is an organisation that works by concensous, not by absolute power. Simply put, Cyprus and the Cypriots cannot be ignored.

There are some basic fundamental facts that you and Mr Gul need to understand.

Turkey has to recognise RoC in some form. It must allow full trade relations with Cyprus. Negotiations cannot even start without that happening. Cyprus can give a yes to Turkey on Dec 17th. The issue is, when negotiations start, each country will have its own delegations that have to directly negotiate with Turkish authorities. Can you please tell me how Cyprus can negotiate directly with Turkey if she does not recognise Cyprus?

And if Turkey doesn't recognise Cyprus, how can Cyprus give her assesment and input to the negotiation process as a full member of the EU?

Also, each and every chapter requires unanimity for it to be accepted and there are 31 chapters in all. This means Cyprus can exercise a veto at any time during the negotiations.

It is impossible for Turkey to be placed in this position. It just cannot be. Turkey knows this, the EU knows this and so does the US.

What this means is that there will be another opportunity to come to a solution BEFORE Turkey starts accession negotiations and I believe that things will head in that direction especially if the start of these talks is in the mid to latter part of 2005.

Metecyp,

I think you just need to stand back and think about what I said. Dec 17th is crucial because Cyprus will make the decision to give a yes or a no to Turkey. In my opnion, it will be a yes. Why? Because Cyprus then gains another 31 opportunities to say no and would in fact place even greater pressure to recognise RoC. If she insists on not recognising the RoC then she has to sit round a table or allow the TC's and the GC's to sit round a table and negotiate a solution to the Cyprus problem and bring in a new state of affairs BEFORE accession talks with Turkey begin. It is a straight choice.

Regarding recognition issue of Macedonia, I do not believe that this will happen in the case of the 'trnc'. If that did happen, then Cyprus will have no option but to veto Turkey. It would also have much wider repercussions for the region, for the EU and Britain. It is not as simple to recognise 'trnc' as is suggested by Bananiot.

I now feel more optimistic that there will be a good opportunity to solve our problem, and hopefuly one where Turkey does not get in the way of what all the Cypriots want.

[Bananiot]

It is very important to consider the way Cyprus became a member of EE. It wasn't a god-sent gift but a product of serious bargains that convinced EE member states to consider the application of Cyprus. Remember, EE would never want to allow Cyprus in with the political problem unsolved. This was made explicitly clear on countless occasions. We even accepted Annan's arbitration in order to convince the EE of our will to solve the problem. Papadopoulos sent a letter of utmost urgency to the SG in December 2003 to convene the talks for the solution and thereafter he accepted arbitration. After the referendum we were accused of deceit and going back on our promises. This has resulted in increasing isolation and alienation of Cyprus. We have lost our credibility and nobody takes us seriously any more.

Within this environment I find it difficult to be optimistic for a solution to our problem. Yet, Papadopoulos promises a European solution which I suppose will be based on a different plan. But, the EE, which is not a problem-solving organisation like the UN, has stated that it considers the A plan as the European solution, by accepting and endorsing the efforts of the SG. The EE will not get involved in the process of finding another solution. That is not its business. In the same way it does not get involved in bickering among EE members, like the long standing issue of Gibraltar. Here we are talking about one member state having bases on the soil of another member state. Of course this now applies to the British bases in Cyprus.

I think Turkey will laugh all the way to Brussels if we decide to use the so called veto right. Karamanlis is urgently coming to Cyprus later this month to try to talk some sense into the hot heads who are hell bent on using veto against Turkey at any stage during the negotiations. On numerous occasions Papadopoulos declared that the veto is not for small states, but who can trust him to mean what he says. Karamanlis certainly doesn't and he is rushing to Cyprus to avert what will be a disastrous move.

[-mikkie2-]

Banantion,

You have not read my post properly!

It was Vasiliou and Clerides that made all the promises to the EU. Are we to accept any plan thatis presented to us?

I stated clearly that the best opportunity was in 2003, when Denktas pulled the plug on the plan at that time. In 2004, it was obvious that unless we got a significantly better proposition to what the plan was proposing we would say no because by that time the accession treaty had already been signed! We were in the EU already! THe EU is just as much responsible for the situation - if they were getting promises from us, the least they could do was to actually help us get a solution that was acceptable, not to get a solution so as to absolve Turkey from her responsibilities.

I have also stated that Cyprus will probably not veto Turkey at the end of the year. This is because the pressure would then increase on Turkey, who lets face it, calls the shots in northern Cyprus. I believe the aim of the government is to nullify the Turkish position in Cyprus as much as it can, so that we Cypriots can come to a solution. The so called European solution does not mean a solution brokered by the EU. It means a solution that adheres to the norms and principles of the EU which as a matter of fact are the same as those of the UN - the respect of fundamental human rights. The A plan as it stands does away with these!

Cyprus is not isoltaed. I do not believe that is the case. If our views were to be ignored then the direct trade with northern Cyprus would have happened by now.

So, Karamanlis is coming to sort out the hot heads of Cyprus. Well, Greece is now facing problems with Turkey in the Aegean. Turkey shows NO respect for her neighbours. It is the attitude of take without giving.

The EU would do very well to take note about this situation. Does the EU want a member state that continually challenges the territorial integrity of her neighbours? I do not think so. Turkey will have to change her attitude.

[Bananiot]

I am not going to accuse you of not reading carefully what I write. Nevertheless, the international factor feels deceived by our government and Papadopoulos. This is because they have realised what we knew for many years. That Papadopoulos does not want a solution based on bicommunal, bizonal federation. He was never going to accept any plan, even if it was one hundred times better than the latest Annan plan. That is why he refused to negotiate it and try to make it better. He staunchly refused to ask for Karpasia, for example, when he had a golden opportunity to do so. He was hell bent on bringing back the worse possible plan so that he could sell its rejection. This attitude is not new. Papadopoulos remains consistent with his doctrine. I give him this. Of course Klerides made promises to the UN and EU. How else could we get into this exclusive club? When Papadopoulos took office he had of course a different agenda which he concealed from all those that were willing to spend energy and time in finding a solution. He tricked these people and it will soon be pay back time. This scares me and if we go around dancing merrily to the tune of Papadopoulos, we are in for a huge surprise.

In the meantime, Papadopoulos spoke today at a conference organised by the Greens. Among others he said that Turkey will recognise Cyprus and in doing so Turkey will remove every single soldier. Well, we are ruled by a die hard lawyer who does not have a clue of modern politics. Yes, I am scared!