MUCH HAS been said and written about the negative climate that has developed around a settlement based on the Annan plan and on Monday, after the fourth version was submitted, we were given a practical demonstration of how this is created, and the leading role played by the government.
After the submission of the Annan plan, government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides held a so-called ‘off the record’ briefing for journalists from the Greek and Greek Cypriot media, informing them that the plan was disastrous for our side. The Greek Cypriot side had achieved just 15 per cent of what it wanted, while the Turkish Cypriot side had achieved 85 per cent. He then focused on the all the negative points of Annan IV, prompting one journalist to ask whether the government saw a single positive point. He mentioned the presidential council, but even on that, the government was disappointed as it was not exactly as it had wanted.
His bleakly negative evaluation of the plan was faithfully reported by all TV journalists, none of whom had even read the new plan, without attributing these views to him. During main news bulletins, some went as far as to credit the negative reaction to “diplomatic sources”, in order to give the story additional weight, but none mentioned that these were the views of the Cyprus government spokesman. Angered by this blatant media manipulation, certain members of the National Council demanded that the spokesman gave another briefing later on. But by then it was too late as the TV stations had whipped up anti-plan hysteria.
Chrysostomides was clearly acting on the instructions of President Papadopoulos, whose associates, for several weeks now, have been doing everything they can to publicly discredit the Annan plan. Monday’s sermon in unrelenting negativity by the government spokesman was part of this campaign. It has become blatantly obvious, that Papadopoulos wants Greek Cypriots to vote ‘no’ in a referendum but cannot say so himself, because he wants to maintain the act that he is interested in a settlement.
The same tactic was employed a couple of weeks ago when Alvaro de Soto submitted the agenda for the give-and-take part of the procedure. Within hours of it being submitted to the president, the TV stations were reporting that it was one-sided and completely ignored the demands of the Greek Cypriot side. De Soto and the UN were being disparaged for their pro-Turkish ‘document’ for two days, which was when Papadopoulos decided to explain that all this fuss, which the presidential palace had generated, was unnecessary and groundless.
He could well do the same regarding the fourth version of the Annan plan tomorrow or the next day. Once he knows that his lieutenants have turned public opinion against the plan, he might even tell us that it has many positive points and opposition to it is unjustified.
