THE RIFT between Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and the United States would appear to be getting wider as the US State Department sent a direct message to the Turkish Cypriot community saying the December election was, in effect, a vote on their future with the Annan plan and the EU.
The State Department in Washington sees the general elections in the occupied north as a “crucial opportunity to express the will of the Turkish Cypriot community” on a solution based on the Annan plan and European Union accession.
A State Department spokesman said yesterday the US hoped the will of the Turkish Cypriot people would be reflected through the choice of a Turkish Cypriot negotiator for the Cyprus problem. He expressed the wish for “fully free and fair elections” and voiced concern about reports of “irregularities in Turkish Cypriot voter lists”.
The US Special Envoy on Cyprus, Thomas Weston, began a tour of the region yesterday, with the December elections on his agenda. He is expected to reach Cyprus during the week.
On reports that election observers had arrived on the island, House Chairman Demetris Christofias said yesterday the government had no specific evidence to verify reports that European and US observers from non-governmental organisations had arrived to monitor the December elections in the north.
He welcomed the State Department’s position on the elections, but said the poll should not be the biggest concern of the US, and that the superpower would do best by putting pressure on Turkey to change its philosophy.
The United Democrats party of former president George Vassiliou welcomed the arrival of the observers, saying it hoped the international community, the EU and the US would intervene to curb the undemocratic methods of the occupying regime.
According to Turkish Cypriot reports yesterday, US Ambassador Michael Klosson was confronted by a number of protesters during a visit to Trikomo on Friday. During his two-hour meeting with the Turkish Cypriot ‘mayor’, demonstrators stood outside the municipality holding banners in English and Turkish stating their opposition to the Annan plan.
The Turkish Cypriot press also reported that the occupation regime intends to bring a large number of voters from Turkey and England to vote in the December elections. According to Kibris, reservations have been made in hotels to put up the voters and by December 11, all hotels in the north will be full, the paper said.
