THE MAJORITY of the opposition parties cried foul yesterday over perceived Turkish Cypriot proposals on the property aspect of reunification talks, and President Demetris Christofias stood accused of ‘deviating’ from long-held Greek Cypriot positions because he wanted to close a deal at all costs.
Media reports on Wednesday gave a glimpse of the Turkish Cypriot proposals, which included a minimal return of displaced Greek Cypriots to their properties, with a cap on the number that can settle in villages and municipalities.
There were also reports that refugees from Varosha, the fenced off part of Famagusta, would share some of their properties with those who would not return to their homes under a comprehensive agreement.
The alleged Turkish Cypriot positions were reported after the President’s first all-day meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.
Speaking at a function after the meeting, Christofias made an impassioned plea for unity on the domestic front, adding that time was against the Greek Cypriots and that he was not willing to be the last President of the Republic before partition.
But citing sources close to the talks, daily Alithia said yesterday that Eroglu came across as more malleable than thought during the first all-day meeting with Christofias. One-on-one, the Turkish Cypriot leader was not as ‘disappointing’ as his written proposals might lead one to think, the source told the paper.
The leaders’ second all-day meeting is scheduled for today, and on Tuesday the President will be briefing the National Council on the outcome of the intensive talks.
Still, EDEK, the European Party and the Greens left no doubt as to where, in their opinion, the negotiations are headed.
EDEK spokesman Demetris Papadakis dismissed the President’s call for urgency as a ‘false dilemma,’ which he said was being put to the people to mask what was really being discussed behind closed doors.
“No one can ignore the rights of thousands of refugees and no one can negotiate these rights in default,” Papadakis said in a statement.
“Mr. Eroglu’s proposals are totally unacceptable and cannot be the subject of negotiation,” he said.
European Party chairman Demetris Syllouris said the President’s ‘obsession’ with blaming all his predecessors for his own faults was becoming ‘annoying’.
“We hope he [Christofias] will not become the last President before the dissolution of the Cyprus Republic. If he cannot handle the responsibility for his actions, perhaps he should open the way for collective action through the National Council.”
Greens leader Ioanna Panayiotou said it was a ‘big lie’ that President Makarios in the 1970s had agreed to discuss compensation or disappropriation for refugees as opposed to outright return.
She was commenting on Christofias’ comment a day earlier when he said it was Makarios who opened the door to the discussion on property and bizonality,
Responding to the onslaught, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou stressed yesterday there was no ‘deviation’ from the tenets of the Cyprus issue as understood by the Greek Cypriot side.
Instead, the President was exhibiting ‘the flexibility and realism’ required to make an agreed solution feasible, he added.
As the elected President, Christofias has been mandated by the people to negotiate the Cyprus problem on their behalf, Stefanou said.
“Do you know since when we have been discussing the property issue? Since 1974. Thirty-six years on, has it just occurred to some of us that the President needs the refugees’ authorisation to negotiate?” Stefanou told newsmen.
Government partners DIKO meanwhile warned that the perceived Turkish Cypriot proposals on property “blatantly reveal their intransigent and provocative views for a confederation and a two-state solution,” something which left no room for optimism on progress in the talks.
“We insist on the need to safeguard the right of legitimate owners [of properties in the occupied north], and we would like to believe that the President will remain on course,” DIKO spokesman Fotis Fotiou said.
On Monday, a day before the National Council convenes, Christofias will be meeting with Nicos Anastassiades, leader of main opposition party DISY. Officially, the meeting has been arranged at Anastassiades’ request so as to ‘coordinate’ ahead of his attendance of a European People’s Party summit in Brussels next week.
There is speculation, however, the real purpose of the tete-a-tete is for the AKEL government and DISY to mend fences and seek some common ground on the Cyprus issue.
