PAPERS in the occupied north yesterday reacted positively to the news from Burgenstock that the fourth version of the UN’s Annan plan for Cyprus seemed to allay many of the fears of the Turkish side.
It was only two die-hard right-wing papers that continued to insist that the plan was simply a ploy to bring Turkish Cypriots under Greek Cypriot sovereignty.
Birlik, the National Unity Party’s (UBP) organ, ran a headline quoting party leader and ex-‘prime minister’ Dervis Eroglu saying, “the plan will imprison Turkish Cypriots in a Greek Cypriot state,” and that the only benefit for the Turkish Cypriots was that they would be able to obtain EU passports with which to emigrate from the island once the Greeks took over.
Extreme right-wing Volkan was equally scathing. The paper claimed that an attempt was being made by the Greek Cypriots and the international community to fool the Turkish side into believing that the Greek Cypriots were unhappy with the latest version, when “in fact, all the changes were sought by the Greek side”. The headline read: “Do not be fooled by false propaganda!”
All other dailies reported that the fourth version of the plan had gone a long way in pleasing the Turkish side.
YeniDuzen, the mouthpiece of Mehmet Ali Talat’s Republican Turkish Party (CTP) announced in its headline, “Faces are smiling”, reporting a list of the changes made in the fourth version of the plan. The changes listed included permanent political equality in the senate, the protection of Turkish Cypriot majority rule in the north, the right of Turkey to keep troops permanently stationed on the island – even after Turkey joins the EU and a reduction in the number of Greek Cypriot refugees allowed to return to the north from 21 per cent of the north’s population to 18 per cent.
Left-of-centre Kibrisli also expressed enthusiasm about Annan’s alterations to the plan, declaring: “Today could be last day of the horror film.” It reported that the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot delegations in Switzerland found the new version “satisfactory”.
Afrika, however, warned that by pleasing the Turkish side and “disappointing” the Greek Cypriots, the outcome of the looming referenda could play into the hands of those opposing a solution to the island’s problem.
