A FEW years back, Brit bashing seemed to have receded into the domain of the nationalist fringe, but ever since Britain and the US began warning of the dire consequences of rejecting the Annan plan, it has become a national pastime.
It has always been the policy of successive Cyprus governments to protect relations with Britain, whatever ill feelings might linger from the colonial era.
This was never so prevalent than during the ten years that Glafcos Clerides’ government was in power, when the Greek Cypriot side was the closest it has ever been to signing on the dotted line of a solution.
But then along came Tassos Papadopoulos and the international community realised that Greek Cypriots might no longer be willing to play ball and might need a few pushes in what they believed was the right direction.
The honeymoon was over, and since last April’s referendum the gloves have been off. The highest levels of government are now shouting it from the rooftops. Britain ‘the great interferer’ is at it again. This time they, with the Americans, are out to punish the Greek Cypriots for saying ‘no’ to the Annan plan while currying favour with Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.
House President Demetris Christofias last weekend accused Britain of being Cyprus’ “bad demon”, its nemesis for half a century, and called on London to stop “challenging the feelings of the people of Cyprus on a daily basis”.
“While choosing Turkey over Cyprus, Britain must understand that the Cypriots have feelings and dignity, which they cannot but stand up for,” he said.
If the Greek Cypriot side was now seeking changes to the Annan plan, this was because so many of the plan’s provisions “bore Britain’s fingerprints, and in particular those of Lord David Hannay, who now comes up with books from which to hurl his thunderbolts at us,” Christofias said, referring to Hannay’s recent book on the Cyprus problem.
Papadopoulos was equally as vociferous when commenting on Christofias’ statements “This is not a new discovery, nor a discovery made only by Mr Christofias,” he said.
The week was also dominated by the controversy over the closed-doors Wilton Park conference in Larnaca, which the government totally snubbed. Affiliated to the British Foreign Office and discussing the way forward in Cyprus, this was just a new plot by Britain to bring back the Annan plan.
The bad feeling actually began before the April 2004 referendum. Britain was widely perceived as one of the main architects of the plan that everyone loved to hate. If Britain thought the plan was good, it had to be bad for the Greek Cypriots.
When Papadopoulos tearfully addressed the nation on April 7, Britain began to play hardball. Britain and the US tried very hard at the UN Security Council to secure an ‘official seal’ for the plan before the referendum. The government cried foul and Russia saved the day by vetoing on the pretext that it would interfere with the free will of Greek Cypriots.
When that failed, the consequences of saying ‘no’ were clearly spelled out: the trade embargoes on the north would be lifted and the EU would probably open a dialogue with the Turkish Cypriots, who would receive financial aid. In addition, Cyprus would no longer be an obstacle to Turkey’s membership and Turkish troops would remain on the island.
Nobody believed it and Britain was accused of scaremongering, although the warnings are not far off what has come to pass.
Clearly there is a lot of hype, but what is clear is that the British government no longer feels it has to treat the Greek Cypriot side with kid gloves. Like the EU, Britain felt cheated by the government’s U-turn on what they thought was a sure thing.
One of the first things Britain did in the wake of the referendum was to push within the EU for direct trade for the Turkish Cypriots. The issue was shelved temporarily to give the Green Line regulations for intra-island trade a chance to work, but is now back in the spotlight, leading Papadopoulos to say during the week: “In many cases, in critical issues, or important issues for us we are constantly faced with the government of the United Kingdom or its officers.”
Denis McShane, Britain’s Minister for Europe, said recently he was aware that British policy on Cyprus since April’s referenda had caused concern amongst Greek Cypriots and that the issue of direct trade between the Turkish Cypriots and the EU was “particularly contentious”.
Foreign Minister George Iacovou said at the time there was a problem with Britain, although he said he did not believe the issue would permanently damage relations between the two countries.
“We think that Britain is putting, together with the US, a political twist on something that was to be mainly economic and only marginally political… putting such a twist that it makes it mainly political and only marginally economic,” said Iacovou. “This is our disagreement and then you have (EU) commissioners saying ‘get Britain off our backs’.
“There is a problem at the moment. It’s because Tony Blair has been to Ankara and they extracted various kinds of promises from him.”
During his visit to Ankara in May last year, Blair said Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan had been a mistake and praised the Turkish Cypriot side for its ‘yes’ vote.
Inviting Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat to London for a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw late last year didn’t go down too well either. “Let London reflect on whether such a move helps in creating good feelings among Greek Cypriots towards Britain, which has a lot of interests on the island,” Papadopoulos said in response to the news.
“This is not the first time Britain has shown through its actions its effort to upgrade the illegal authorities of the Turkish Cypriot regime, without taking into consideration that the Republic of Cyprus is a recognised political authority and this is the government of the Republic. We do not agree with such moves.”
In December Papadapoulos also had a run-in with Blair during the Brussels summit at which Turkey secured its date for accession talks without having to sign the protocol extending its customs union with Cyprus. Papadopoulos did not veto, despite months of threatening to do so. By all accounts British officials were telling both sides what they wanted to hear.
And to cap all the bad feelings that have been created since last April, the year end brought to light proof of what Greek Cypriots have been saying for 30 years. Official confirmation from 30-year old declassified documents revealed that Britain had considered intervention in 1974, only to decide against it, allowing the Turkish invasion to unfold. How much worse things can get only remains to be seen.
