By Ralph Boulton
RAUF Denktash warned yesterday that the “honeymoon season” between Turkish and Greek Cypriots “may not last for ever”.
The veteran Turkish Cypriot leader said that any agreement that allowed Greek Cypriots to resettle in the north of the island could revive past communal conflict. “So this friendship now, this honeymoon season, is very good, but one should not be mistaken that it is there to stay for ever because the political reasons for conflict still exist,” Denktash told Reuters.
He said he wanted the crossing (between the two sides) to stay open, so long as there was no sign of a repeat of the inter-communal violence that scarred the island in the 1960s and 1970s. “We have no intention (of closing it) unless very serious incidents happen,” he said.
Denktash, blamed by the United Nations for the collapse of the UN-sponsored peace talks, said he saw no grounds yet for any resumption of negotiations with the Greek Cypriots.
He claimed he had been unfairly accused of intransigence over the UN deal. “There is a general policy of doing away with Denktash, who is seen as the wall blocking the way to a makeshift solution. We, my people, are against a makeshift solution. We want equality with the Greek Cypriots,” he said in an interview.
A solution could ease the way for Turkey to join the European Union, although Denktash said he felt no sense of urgency for a solution before Cyprus joins the bloc in 2004. “I don’t think the EU is sincere in telling Turkey that its entering the EU depends on the settlement of the Cyprus problem. I think they put the Cyprus problem before Turkey because they don’t want Turkey to enter yet,” he said.
Denktash, looking healthy after the heart problems that weakened him earlier this year, said there were still those in “Greek Cyprus” who saw Cyprus as a Greek island and saw no role for Turks there.
He said that any resettlement of Greek Cypriots in the north should be decided by northern Cyprus “according to its own quotas” and he dismissed as “fantasy” suggestions that Turkish Cypriots might migrate en masse to the south. “I think some Turkish Cypriots will go south to find work but they will come back to their homes at night,” he said.
