RAUF Denktash has said he would advise Turkish Cypriots to reject the Annan plan in the referendum if he came away from the current talks dissatisfied with the changes made.
The veteran Turkish Cypriot leader was speaking in an interview with Turkish Cypriot television Bayrak late on Tuesday. “In its current shape the plan would mean our removal (from the island) in a short time,” Denktash said. “It would reduce us to a miserable minority under the Greek Cypriots.”
Denktash repeated that the UN plan was “hazardous” and that he had only returned to the negotiating table at Ankara’s behest.
“I clearly explained. I am a person who does not accept Annan’s plan and knows how hazardous (it) is. I am not a person who will say ‘accept it’ without any change,” he said, adding that Turkey had mandated him to try and change the plan to include the Turkish side’s concerns.
“I joined the negotiation process to fulfil this duty and whether I can bring Annan’s plan to a point that does not oppress our people but benefits them, brings Cyprus to compromise and opens European Union doors. And I have been exerting sincere efforts,’ he added.
Denktash said that if he was unable to make the necessary changes, he would inform his people about the dangers of the plan, and that he as a citizen, would vote ‘no’. “If I wanted to destroy (the talks) I would not have started this job. I started it as I thought there are things that can be done,” he said.
Following his meeting with President Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday, Denktash, who is due to travel to Ankara today, said the Greek Cypriot side continued to reject all of the Turkish Cypriot proposals.
“They want land earmarked for transfer to the Greek Cypriot side – for which the Annan plan allows a three-year transition period – to be handed over to the UN the day the plan is signed. We reject this,” he said. “They [the Greek Cypriots] want a shortening of the transition periods envisioned in the Annan plan, citing delays in the start of negotiations. They want everything sewn up by May 1. This we see as completely unreasonable”.
Greek Foreign Minister Tassos Yannitsis suggested on Tuesday that negotiations might run beyond May 1, when Cyprus joins the EU. Denktash said he had been surprised by those who said the negotiating process must be wound up by May 1, and he did not believe the door to the EU would be slammed shut on that date.
However Papadopoulos said after yesterday’s meeting that his objective was to reach a settlement by May 1. He said he wanted to engage in substantive negotiations on the core issues and not in “an exchange of extreme positions”.
“Our aim is to conclude an agreement, this remains our goal,” he said. “If things prove to be otherwise, the future will tell. My goal is not to see the process get locked in an exchange of extreme positions but to have a substantive process on core issues so that we can achieve the changes we had set out right from the start.”
Papadopoulos said that during the negotiations Denktash regularly returns to what he called his “vision”, and that this did not contribute to the negotiating process. Denktash rejected accusations that he was responsible for the delays, saying that all sides should accept a share of the blame.
Yesterday’s meeting focused on the issue of territory, according to Papadopoulos. “We are trying to safeguard that areas to be returned are put under the supervision of the Security Council for the period prescribed in the UN peace proposal under negotiation, until they are actually handed to the Greek Cypriot side,” Papadopoulos said.
Papadopoulos said the proposals he put forward were not only necessary but related to some of the most fundamental aspects of the Annan plan. He said Denktash wanted to increase the time frame for the return of Greek Cypriot refugees from three yeas, as envisaged by the Annan plan, to six years.
Turkish officials said Ankara was frustrated by what it saw as Greek Cypriot foot-dragging, Reuters reported yesterday. “The Turkish side would like to see intensified efforts for a solution by May 1,” one senior official told reporters after a meeting in Ankara on yesterday with Washington’s envoy to Cyprus, Thomas Weston. “We see the Greek Cypriots are being lethargic. We have told Weston that we expect contributions from all parties involved.”
Officials said Turkey wanted to clear up as many issues as possible in the UN plan before Turkey and Greece joined the negotiations.
