Are we ready to stop taking sides and focus on human rights

Sir,
Levent Hasanoglu (‘The ‘enclaved’ aren’t enclaved any more’, letters, August 29) suggests that the critical question – the Cyprus question – is whether the two sides are ready for a partnership based on political equality. Pose the wrong question and you get the wrong answer, 30, no 40 years of it… and counting.

The critical question, Levent, is whether Cypriots are ready to stop taking sides and instead focus on respecting human rights and individual freedoms, regardless of background, respecting democracy and the will of the majority. The alternative, the Annan plan as written, is apartheid.

True Cypriots aren’t ready for partnership based on political equality. They are ready for unity.

Andreas Koumi, London

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.