AS negotiations continue to inch forward, it has become increasingly clear that some circles are creating a climate similar to 2004 when those who supported the UN’s Annan plan were more or less branded as traitors in the pay of outside powers, seeking to impose an unfair solution on the Greek Cypriots.
Leaked documents, distorted views, negative reports, unsubstantiated allegations have all become part of the present climate although it is not as bad as 2004. Yet.
Back then, former president Tassos Papadopoulos himself suggested that people were receiving money from foreigners although there were no “receipts” to substantiate this.
“Many things can be deduced from behaviour. Others can be deduced from the ambient atmosphere,“ Papadopoulos said in October 2004.
In some cases, such as the accusations made against UNOPS that it had taken US government money to help fund a ‘yes’ vote on the Annan plan, it shared elements of a mini version, US-style McCarthyism.
Three Greek Cypriots who were named in 2004 in one newspaper as being lackeys of US imperialism pursued legal action. Five years later the group were vindicated and the newspaper was forced to retract everything they reported.
Participants in the negotiations like UN officials have always been prime targets.
“It’s not been unheard of that people outside of Cyprus occasionally get a potshot taken at them too on this question,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe. “But frankly the issues are too important for this sort of silliness and frivolous stories around the edges.”
Last week daily Phileleftheros, in a report where it revealed the “minutes” of a meeting between the UN official and US Ambassador to Cyprus Frank Urbancic, described Pascoe as one of the creators of “the antidemocratic Annan plan”.
The report went on to say that Pascoe gave instructions to the UN special envoy Alexander Downer to “enrich the (talks) procedure with ideas” – something the newspaper called an “intention of disguised arbitration”.
The report immediately prompted an uproar from various parties who rejected any form of arbitration.
Another major target of this concerted effort is opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades, who has a pivotal role to play in the solution process, as his party, together with ruling AKEL, enjoy the biggest support – roughly 70 per cent.
Anastasiades has been a target since 2004 for his support for the Annan plan.
“Some people, without a sense of responsibility, are trying through distorted leaks to create a negative climate within public opinion for those who do not identify with their positions.” Anastasiades said on Thursday.
He made it clear that his party would not tolerate the creation of a similar climate as in 2004 “through fantastical conspiracy scenarios”.
Only a day before, EVROKO chairman Demetris Syllouris seemed to be doing just that when he said he had information that someone had leaked National Council documents to foreign diplomats and UN officials, although he did not elaborate further.
Even a dinner hosted by journalist Makarios Droushiotis with Downer as a guest along with other journalists was more or less presented as a conspiracy by Phileleftheros.
The paper’s Washington DC correspondent Michalis Ignatiou, a major source of ‘revelations’ went as far as commenting on the menu.
Little did he know that he was being set up by a person who participated in the dinner and decided to pose as an informant deliberately feeding Ignatiou the wrong information to see how it would be handled.
The man gave him details on the menu only to see it later published in Phileleftheros.
The story of the sting was published in a full-page article called “The conspiracy of the stuffed courgette flowers” in Thursday’s Alithia, complete with the emails the ‘informant’ exchanged with Ignatiou.
“Are we really in an EU member-state or are we living an illusion,” Droushiotis wrote in an article in Politis on Wednesday.
“Many times I wonder if we live in Cyprus or Afganistan. Is Mr. Downer really the UNSG’s special envoy or a Colombian cocaine dealer and contact with him is a felony.”
In their effort to create a similar climate as in 2004, rejectionists have a major weakness.
This time round they do not have the support of the government as they did back then. Even so, the Christofias government has so far kept its reaction muted, possibly in a bid to keep its hardliner partners appeased.
