PRESIDENT Christofias went to yesterday’s second round of intensive talks, under fire from all the political parties, for allowing the Turkish side to destroy the basis of the negotiations. The submission of the Turkish proposals – universally condemned by the Greek Cypriots as partitionist/confederal – meant that Christofias was no longer negotiating a federal settlement, argued his critics, pertinently asking why he was still talking with Mehmet Ali Talat.
This matter would never have arisen had Christofias not displayed the by now familiar political cowardice, when the Turkish proposals were first submitted. He kept the submission of the proposals secret, but when they were leaked to the Turkish press and the hard-liners started expressing outrage about the content, he got cold feet and hastily called a meeting of the party leaders to discuss them. The meeting, held on the eve of the start of the intensive talks, decided unanimously to reject the Turkish proposals outright. Christofias refused to discuss it.
It was an absurd position to take and Christofias knew it. Was it ever likely the two leaders would discuss only the Greek Cypriot proposals during the intensive talks and completely ignore the Turkish proposals, because the party leaders did not approve of them? This was after all a negotiation, and the proposals were not the Turks’ final positions; nobody was asking Christofias to accept them. Rather than make this clear to the public when the proposals were publicised, he called the meeting and embraced the tough line of the party leaders, knowing very well that he could not reject the Turkish side’s proposals.
Last week, the lie was exposed by Talat who said the Turkish proposals were on the negotiating table, sparking a new wave of criticism by the Greek Cypriot party leaders. On Sunday, two weeks after the unanimous decision to reject the proposals, Christofias finally came clean as he finally found the courage to state the obvious. “Both negotiators try to win as much as possible and Mr Talat, with the notorious document, that was prepared in Ankara, is trying to maximise his gains. He will not win what is contained in the document.”
Why could he not muster the courage to say this two weeks ago? Did he believe that he could carry on misleading everyone indefinitely? The problem is that Christofias is a weak and indecisive leader, more concerned about his popularity ratings than achieving his objective. This is why he is so easily swayed by public opinion and intimidated by the cheap defiance of the party leaders and a section of the media. The man even objects to the UN issuing announcements about the progress made at the talks, for fear that he would come under attack.
It is sad to say this, but Christofias has been displaying all the hallmarks of a weak leader, and weak leaders do not solve problems that require painful compromises.
