PRESSURE is mounting on Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, as the international community, opposition parties in the north and even Ankara appear to have ganged up to push for a solution before May next year.
Reports have begun to surface in the north hinting that Denktash will be sidelined “like Arafat” and that elections slated for December could be brought forward to October to give time to a new Turkish Cypriot negotiator to thrash out a solution based on the Annan plan by March.
General elections in Greece in April have added urgency to the race to find a solution, as the Athens government is expected to wind down by the end of February.
Republican Turkish Party leader Mehmet Ali Talat told Politis newspaper that he had already sent a letter to ‘parliament’ demanding a debate for early elections in the north, bringing them forward from December to October. Reports suggest this move is supported by Ankara.
Yesterday, following a meeting of Greek and Turkish Cypriot party leaders at the Ledra Palace United Cyprus Party leader Izzet Izcan said Denktash might use the elections as a ploy “to show that he is willing to sit at the table” and then abandon the process at a later date.
Denktash has rejected the Annan plan point blank, refusing last March to put it to a referendum in the north.
“We want someone who will accept the solution of the Cyprus problem on the basis of the Annan plan and who will accept the referendum of the Turkish Cypriot community,” Izcan said.
“Our job is to change the negotiator. Our job is to get the support of the Turkish Cypriot community, which we feel that we have, and we do not see these elections as elections but as a referendum,” he added.
Izcan’s comments echoed those made by US State Department Co-ordinator Thomas Weston to a Turkish television channel at the weekend. The US is spearheading the latest campaign for a settlement before May 2004, when Cyprus joins the EU. In one of the most frank interviews yet, Weston expressed US support for the Turkish Cypriot opposition and was clear that if Denktash did not co-operate in reaching a settlement, the Annan plan would still go to referendum.
He said that if the opposition was elected he had no doubt a settlement would be reached in time.
“We believe there is a great deal of support for EU membership for Turkish Cypriots entering the EU at the same time as Greek Cypriots – therefore settlement, therefore the Annan plan and therefore a referendum,” Weston said.
“We believe that will be expressed during the elections in December. In many ways without characterising it too starkly, because I think it is very hard to predict these things all in advance, in many ways the elections in December are also a referendum on the policies of Mr Denktash.”
Weston added the US would still try to convince Denktash of the benefits of a solution, but added he was not optimistic in this regard.
“If agreement can not be reached then the only legitimate, democratic thing to do is to put it to the people of Cyprus… and let the people of Cyprus determine their future rather than having someone else determine it for them,” he added. A referendum would have to be held by April, he said.
Weston also said that by resisting, Denktash was not only taking on the responsibility for the future of the Turkish Cypriots but also for Turkey, whose EU aspirations would be affected by failure to reach a solution in Cyprus.
Weston said he had met a much harder stance from Denktash than he had in Ankara. Turkey’s attitude was much closer to that of the Turkish Cypriots, he said, adding that Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had not expressed the notion that a solution could not be found before next May. “This, of course, coincides with our analysis,” Weston said. “We (the US and Ankara) believe that not only the Annan plan should be on the table, we believe that it is on the table.”
