Turkish Cypriot leaders express condolences for Papadopoulos

TURKISH Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat yesterday refrained from airing any bitterness he may have felt over Tassos Papadopoulos` refusal to back the 2004 UN peace plan for Cyprus, and made only a brief statement of condolences to Papadopoulos’ family and the Greek Cypriot people.

He did however speak of the possibility of attending the former president’s funeral.

3Former Turkish Cypriot ‘deputy prime minister’ Serdar Denktash said he might also attend Papadopoulos’ funeral. He told the Cyprus Mail he would remember Papadopoulos with “great respect for the way he stuck to his guns over the UN’s settlement plan for Cyprus in 2004”.
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We had many meetings there and I found him to be very straightforward about his views. From the onset he was against the Annan plan and he wasn’t afraid to say so, which I found an honest approach”.

“Although I couldn’t agree with him, when he explained to me his reasons for opposing the Annan plan, I can’t say he wasn’t justified from his point of view,” he added. “Because his aim was to protect what he saw as the Greekness of the island, some Turkish Cypriots saw him as an enemy. I personally, however, did not see him as one”.

Denktash said it was during final negotiations on the Annan plan taking place in Birgenstock, Switzerland in 2004 that he got to know Papadopoulos on a “one to one basis”.

“I found him very polite, but determined,” Denktash said, adding: “I am deeply saddened and hope to be able to go to his funeral”.

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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.