Cyprus-Forum.com

[reportfromcyprus]

The government communicates what it wants to communicate. That's why I always make the point that you have to research and decide for yourself.

[Piratis]

Annan plan was a plan created by the Americans and their allies to serve their own interests. It was a partition plan with total disrespect to the principles of the UN itself! Human right violations, undemocratic provisions and multiple derogation's from the EU aquis were all incorporated in this monstrous plan that would close (and not solve) the Cyprus issue.

The negotiations were not done in the framework of the UN principles. Instead they were done in the usual way of "we are the strong and you are the weak and you have to accept what we demand or we will just force it on you anyways". Unfortunately many former Cyprus governments followed the "pants down and bent" policies. Maybe you confuse them with the will of the majority of the Cypriot people? Go read what they were promising to the people to be elected and compare that with what they were doing behind closed doors.

Fortunately we finally have a leader that can stand for our human and democratic rights and that can not be bought or bend.

reportfrocyprus, we don't want "stability and peace" only, if we wanted just that we would simply accept the ethnic cleansing against us and recognize the pseudo state of "TRNC". What we want is our land and our human and democratic rights back, the ones that the AngloAmericans tried to force us to sign away with the Annan plan.

And by the way, when you say "we" what do you mean? We the people that were ethnically cleansed from the land we inhabited from 3500 years? We the people whose human and democratic rights are violated? We the people whose land is stolen? Are you "we"?

[reportfromcyprus]

Piratis, you would like to designate me as an outsider.

I can understand that, because bitterness, under the circumstances, is understandable.

I can't accept it, though. I am part of the "we". As are all the residents of this country. My family lost land and was displaced, and I have relatives who are refugees. None of them have ever tried to categorise me as an outsider or undermine my concern for the future of this country. We were all affected in one way or the other by the military action in Cyprus in the 1960's and 70's.

The real question in your mind is whether I am Greek or Turkish Cypriot. Who am I to dare to make any comments on Cyprus?

I am Cypriot and have the same rights you do.

[reportfromcyprus]

If the UN plan was to be "forced on us" because they are the strong and we are the weak, then why bother to put it to referendum?

[MR-from-NG]

Greek Cypriot youth prefer living apart from Turkish Cypriots

May 16, 2006


Some 61 percent of Greek Cypriot young people aged 18 to 24 prefer living separately to Turkish Cypriots, according to a poll published yesterday, an indicator that future efforts towards peace on the island and its reunification might fail to make any breakthroughs.

While the majority of elderly people favor living in separate areas, they also have no interest in developments in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), according to the public poll, conducted by VPRC and Public Issue Company for Greek daily Katimerini

The poll also found that 87 percent of Greek Cypriots see no hope of finding a peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem and almost nobody wants a restart to peace and reunification talks based on the Annan plan which was rejected by the Greek Cypriots in a referendum in 2004. While just 1 percent of participants favor a restart of talks on the basis of the plan, 58 percent favor discussions on a new plan.

It also showed that 67 percent of Greek Cypriots trust the policies followed by their leader Tassos Papadopoulos.

Although the Greek Cypriots rejected United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's peace and reunification plan, Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of it in a separate referendum held on the north of the divided island.

Cyprus was divided between the Turkish Cypriot-controlled north and Greek Cypriot-controlled south in 1974 following Turkish intervention on the island to stop a coup led by supporters of unification with Greece (enosis).
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I'm in favour of reunification, this would be the case for the majority of TC's. Shame our distant cousins are not sharing our enthusiasm.

Every public poll tells the same story. Am I wrong in assuming that a permanent separation is imminent?

[Kifeas]

That's a very broad generalisation and inaccurate, historically speaking.

The UN plan was the closest possibility we have had so far to a compromise on the future of power sharing in the country. It was based on decades of negotiations, and prior to the current administration, it was contributed to by our government over a period of years.
We expressed the desire for a solution, the relevant international authorities attempted to create one. We rejected it. It's our bed and we lie in it now. Getting them back to the table will be a big challenge. Will they trust our good faith again?

Bottom line: we live in fear and anger. Fear of change. Anger at injustice. And it's blinding us to future possibilities.

I'm not talking about an automatic hand-over of power to an enemy. I'm advocating responsible negotiations and serious diplomacy to achieve stability and peace for this country. Where are they? Who's going to undertake them?

May I ask, on what knowledge and information did you base the above claims, especially the underlined sentence? Are you saying that all the provisions of the Annan plan, were issues that the G/C side had negotiated and accepted in the past? I honestly find the above claim outrageous, and it sounds very similar to the rhetoric that some foreign centres involved with the assembly of the Annan plan, used to propagandise, in order to back up, support and justify their product. The G/C side has never accepted -be it privately or publicly, most of the crucial provisions in that plan. I do not want to go over each one of them separately, but what is profound based on each side’s at times publicly declared views, the Annan plan was nothing more than the med-point line drawing between the G/C side’s already fully compromised positions since 1975/77, and the increasingly more extreme, uncompromising and illogical positions of Rauf Denktash and Turkey, over and during the past 30 years before the referendum. This is what the Annan plan was, and not the embellished picture you have painted above.

[Piratis]

reportfromcyprus, I didn't make any conclusions about you. I just asked a question. Simply living in Cyprus doesn't put somebody in the same "we" group as the people that love this country and have thousands of years of history on every corner of our island. I hope you would agree with this.

If the UN plan was to be "forced on us" because they are the strong and we are the weak, then why bother to put it to referendum?

Partition is forced on us for the last 32 years. Legalizing it requires some legalistic procedures which their brute force alone is not able to achieve.
The only reason they suddenly rushed to "solve" the Cyprus problem was that Cyprus was entering the EU and could block Turkey. Annan plan was the solution, not for Cypriots, but for the problem that Turkey would have with Cyprus in EU. Why do you think they rushed to force it on us before May 1st?

[Kifeas]

If the UN plan was to be "forced on us" because they are the strong and we are the weak, then why bother to put it to referendum?

Oh c'mon! What is this argument? We put it in the referendum simply because our side undertook the obligation to do so. It was a term imposed by Kofi Annan, which at the time we were compelled to accept, we had no other choice. It was a demand by Annan, in order to start a new initiative under his auspices. However, our side did not undertake the obligation to support it as well. That is why on the ballots there were two possible answers, "yes" and "no," instead of only a "yes" one!

[Piratis]

I'm in favour of reunification, this would be the case for the majority of TC's. Shame our distant cousins are not sharing our enthusiasm.

Really? Because I thought before you said:

Malaka, you say you have land in Varosha and that you would be a very wealthy man if you had access to it. I hope we never find a solution the Cyprus problem and you never get an inch of your land back.

There is no GCs that doesn't want his rights and land back, except if you assume we are masochists?

[MR-from-NG]

Piratis, don't get too clever with me please, Malaka got what he deserved. We have a saying "oyle basa oyle darak" roughly translated it is " for a head like that you need a comb like this".

Yes, I know you want your land back. You never know you may well get your land back one day. For me it is neither here nor there, I don't need your land no do I need a single penny from you guys. Reunification or separation my life will go on, so will yours.