“You were right to reject Annan plan”

JOURNALIST Christopher Hitchens, and defence analyst and magazine editor Gregory Copley, have said Greek Cypriots were right to reject the Annan plan in April’s referendum.

Speaking at a forum in Washington hosted by the American Hellenic Institute titled “Cyprus: 30 Years Later–An Assessment of the Annan Plan and Where Do We Go From Here”, Copley, Editor of Defense and Foreign Affairs, said the Annan plan and the process leading to the referendum was flawed and unbalanced. He said the plan was drafted primarily by Britain and the US and devised and imposed on the Greek and Turkish Cypriots by means of a “top-down structure” which removed the Cypriots as the primary actors in the resolution process.

“The Annan plan deserved to fail and was bound to fail,” said Copley. “There has been a massive failure of western intelligence services to judge the mood on Cyprus correctly.”

Copley said the entire effort had been primarily to make Turkey happy and that the US had mostly been responsible for the drafting of the plan, which it had tried to make pro-Turkish.

“The expectation was that the Cypriots would do once again what they were told,” he said. “But the Annan plan failed to address serious concerns.”

Hitchens said the plan would not have provided a solution for Cyprus, and that he supported the “no” vote of Greek Cypriots.

“The US has taken it upon itself to represent the Turkish side in the Cyprus negotiations and principles and values have been evaded by the US on the Cyprus issue,” he said. “Why should the sovereign Republic of Cyprus negotiate with the proxy of the occupying power when no one made the demand on Turkey to recognise the Republic of Cyprus and negotiate with it?”

Hitchens said Turkey was the one answerable for the situation in Cyprus and he criticised United Nations Secretary-general Kofi Annan for ‘siding’ with the Turkish positions.

“The people of Cyprus must be thanked for not giving into blackmail and bullying from the outside and for voting on the Annan plan according to their concerns and conscience in a democratic process.”