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Hannay blames Greek Cypriots for lack of progress

 

Warns no date for Turkey on Dec. 17 would bury settlement chances

By Alex Efthyvoulos

Lord David Hannay, the British envoy regarded by many as the main author of the controversial Annan Plan, warned that the prospects of a Cyprus settlement would disappear if the European Union does not grant Turkey a date for the opening of entry negotiations on December 17.

Speaking in London this week, he praised the Turkish Cypriots for accepting the Annan Plan, and blamed the Greek Cypriot side for the lack of progress toward a setlement.

``For the Turkish Cypriots their brave decision to turn their backs on 30 years of denial remained unrewarded, as they were left in a kind of limbo when Cyprus entered the European Union. Even the palliatives of a substantial European Union aid programme and the resumption of preferential trade with Europe have been slow in coming and are being contested every inch of the way by the Greek Cypriot administration which seems locked in a time-warp of negativism,'' he said.

Build up

Speaking during the presentation of his book "Cyprus: The Search for a Solution," Hannay said that if the EU does give Turkey a date for opening entry negotiations "that will have a profound effect also on the Cyprus problem and on the way people think about it."

``If I am right that a decision to move ahead with Turkey's accession negotiations does have this effect, then we can expect the momentum for a resumption of the search for a Cyprus solution to build up. It will not necessarily move forward at a great pace, nor does it need to. Another failed attempt at reaching a solution would be even more damaging than the last one," he said.

'I cannot see where the political will for a settlement is going to come from in those circumstances'

 

 

"But if the EU is not willing or able to give Turkey a green light on December 17, then I would be very pessimistic about the prospects for a Cyprus settlement. I really cannot see where the political will is going to come from in those circumstances," he added.

Speaking in a separate interview with Kyriacos Tsoupras, the London correspondent of the Cyprus News Agency, Lord Hannay tended to dismiss the insistence of President Papadopoulos for the formal recognition of Cyprus by Turkey, as a precondition for being given a date by the EU for the opening of entry talks.

He said that the question of the recognition of Cyprus by Turkey will come up if and when Turkey completes its accession talks with the EU. Asked to comment on the fact that a country seeking accession negotiations with the EU does not recognise an EU member country, Hannay said "the matter does not arise in a particularly acute form at this stage. What is clear is, if and when Turkey reaches the end of the accession road and has to sign a Treaty with, by then probably 27 members, will be signing with what Cyprus will be at that time. I hope it will be the United Republic of Cyprus, that there will be a settlement."

Hannay repeated what he has been saying regularly through the years, that "the future of Cyprus lies in the hands of Cypriots,'' ignoring Turkey's deep involvement and absolute control of the occupied north of the island.

 

'What is surely needed now is a whole network of informal contacts'

 

 

He added that ``what is surely needed now is a whole network of informal contacts between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot politicians designed to build up familiarity and mutual confidence. Any outsider, particularly any British outsider, soon becomes conscious of the fact that anything he says about the Cyprus problem is minutely examined by a critical audience on both sides. Accusations fly, hidden agendas are lovingly created, conspiracy theories abound.

``To tell the truth, I was sometimes tempted to live up to people's prejudices, to pull out of my pocket a piece of paper and announce that here I held the secret British blueprint for the future of Cyprus. But there was no such blueprint, nor will there be. The future of Cyprus lies in the hands of Cypriots, although they are often reluctant to believe that. I hope they will find a way to reunite their island, to respect each other and each other's institutions, to put behind them an undoubtedly nightmarish past and to achieve security and prosperity in an enlarged European Union. Those were the objectives for which I worked and it would be wonderful to see them realised," he said.