Denktash’s dream come true

Sir,
I read Loucas G. Charalambous’s comments last week with interest. However, I do not share his “optimism” that the emergence of two states on the island is the worst possible scenario. I believe that a far more worrying development lurks on the horizon. What if, partition having been made permanent, Turkey should decide to annex the “TRNC” as one of its provinces; this would be nothing more than a formal recognition of the de facto situation, anyway. The border running across the island would become that with the Turkish Republic. This is particularly alarming given that the latter is now showing signs of departing from the secular, Kemalist ideology of its founding elite.

Then you can forget all arguments about the number of settlers. Everybody north of the border will be a Turkish Republic citizen. Turkish Cypriots will be stripped of all vestiges of Cypriotness as their identity is dissolved into a state of whose population they will constitute about a quarter of one percent.

Nightmare? For Rauf Denktash, it would be a dream come true.
Tim Drayton
Limassol

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.