Papadopoulos stands firm

ONE DAY before his first meeting with UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan since April’s referendum, President Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday stuck by his guns and defending the overwhelming rejection of the UN’s blueprint for re-unification of the island.

During an interview with Harvard University’s Centre for Public Leadership Visual History Programme, Papadopoulos said he had no doubts over his decision to reject the plan because it would have led to partition.

His comments came a day before Annan is expected to present his report on the Cyprus problem to the UN Security Council, a report which is said to be highly critical of the President’s stance during efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem.

Papadopoulos admitted that the resounding ‘no’ to the plan by Greek Cypriots has created difficulties and challenges that had to be overcome. He said a federal system would be the ideal system for the island, but added that he called on the people of Cyprus to reject the plan, since according to his evaluation, it included negative elements such as provisions that would have led to dead ends, government paralysis and the dissolution of the state.

Papadopoulos insisted that the rejection of the plan by 76 per cent of the Greek Cypriot population did not amount to a rejection of the island’s re-unification and a solution to the Cyprus problem by the Greek Cypriot community.

“I wish to help in tearing down the wall of nationalism and convince our Turkish Cypriot compatriots that we have to live together in symbiotic conditions and not side by side in good neighbourhood conditions,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.