HOW DISAPPOINTING that most of the second debate between the main three presidential candidates on Monday night, which was focused on the Cyprus problem, was taken up discussing the past, particularly the Annan plan. Almost nine years have passed since three quarters of Greek Cypriots rejected the plan in a referendum and in the meantime there has been a new bout of negotiations – described as Cypriot-owned – that lasted more than three years before grinding to halt about a year ago.
What is the relevance of the Annan plan today? Is there the remotest possibility the Annan plan would be re-submitted in the immediate future? The answer is ‘no’, it just offers an example of the way Cyprus problem discourse focuses on the past. The approach suited Giorgos Lillikas for two reasons. First, he has never stopped exploiting his vehement opposition to the plan, which he treats as a big personal triumph. Second, it offers him the opportunity to question the judgment and patriotism of Nicos Anastasiades who supported the yes-vote in 2004. Stavros Malas said he had voted for the plan because he had never bothered reading it; if he had he would also have cast a ‘no-vote’.
But we should not blame the candidates for turning the 2004 referendum into the main issue of a 2013 election debate. The four journalists in the studio have the main responsibility for this as they kept raising the matter in their questions – no matter what the candidates said, they would not let it go, insisting on coming back to it. It was like they were pursuing personal agendas instead of helping viewers understand what the candidate planned to do about the national issue.
The truth is that permanent partition is drawing closer. The number of Turkish settlers in the north has grown alarmingly – numbers are anything between 100,000 and 200,000; the number of Greek Cypriots applying to the Immovable Properties Commission seeking compensation for their properties is continuously rising; more and more Turkish businesses are investing in the north; the Turkish government is taking gradual steps aimed at turning the north into a province of Turkey. How did the candidates propose to prevent this from happening, assuming they were opposed to partition?
How would they deal with Turkish threats to stop companies from drilling for hydrocarbons in Cyprus’ EEZ? Would the continuation of the status quo put at risk Cyprus’ ability to exploit the natural gas reserves? Would a settlement allow us to cash in on natural gas sooner, by using Turkey’s gas pipe-line as Archbishop Chrysostomos suggested? These were the questions the candidates should have been answering, but the journalists had decided the Annan plan was the only thing that mattered to voters.
