Serdar: deadline for deal or recognition

GREEK CYPRIOTS should be given a deadline to accept a UN peace plan for Cyprus or the international community should recognise the breakaway north as a separate state, ‘foreign minister’ Serdar Denktash said in an interview broadcast yesterday.

“We cannot wait forever for the Greek Cypriots to agree to the plan,” said Denktash. “There should be a time limit. This time limit should not be longer than a year.

“If the Greek Cypriots still say no, we will try to ensure that the Turkish part of Cyprus is recognised internationally as a state,” he said in comments translated into German and broadcast on Austrian state radio.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected a reunification plan in an April 24 referendum.

Turkish Cypriots approved the United Nations proposals with a sizeable majority.

President Tassos Papadopoulos, who was due to visit Austria and meet Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel today, has said he wants new negotiations on the UN proposals.

Turkish Cypriots have snubbed his call. “We do not want to negotiate the UN plan again because we said ‘yes’ to this plan in a referendum,” said Denktash, son of veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

International mediators pitching for a deal before Cyprus joined the EU were concerned that a failure could cement a 30-year partition and complicate Turkey’s hopes of starting membership talks with the European Union in 2005.

Greek Cypriots, who have a veto right in the EU, say they do not intend to block Turkey’s aspirations.

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.