OPPOSITION politicians, diplomats and analysts have warned that unless the government curbs its negative rhetoric on the Cyprus issue, it will prompt the international community to assume the Greek Cypriot side does not want a solution.
Although the government vehemently denies this is the case, observers say the negativity emanating from official circles is giving a bad impression abroad, which could be detrimental to the Greek Cypriot side’s future position.
“President Papadopoulos doesn’t want a solution,” former Defence Minister DISY’s Socratis Hasikos told the Sunday Mail. “This is the problem with him. Negative publicity. He doesn’t want to say directly ‘I’m not ready to talk with Mr Denktash and find a solution. I don’t believe in a solution’. This is what I think,” Hasikos said.
“Certainly, some of the statements and things coming out are not positive,” said a diplomatic source commenting on developments earlier in the week.
President Tassos Papadopoulos was less than enthusiastic on Tuesday when he received a reply from UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan to his December letter asking for the resumption of talks.
Annan made it clear he would not invite the sides for talks until they both showed the necessary political will, and agreed to hold a referendum on his solution plan.
”I do not intend to respond to Annan’s letter, I do not intend to engage in negotiations by correspondence,” the President said on Tuesday. ”Putting an agreed settlement to separate referenda was a precondition which the Secretary-general had set out right from the start. I believe this was done under different circumstances and for other purposes,” he added.
But former Attorney-general Alecos Markides was critical of the government’s handling of the Annan reply. “It appears what the politicians do not understand is that this particular Secretary-general means business, and he is not going to accept a variation of his terms in respect of the resumption of talks, even if both sides agree,” he said.
“Do the people who govern Cyprus realise that? Or do they think the Secretary-general may be persuaded to change his mind?”
Only the day before the Annan letter was received, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had done an about turn resurrecting the Annan plan and putting it back on the table as a basis for negotiations, following a trip to Ankara. The government’s response was a collective shrug.
“There is a rumour going around that the government doesn’t want a solution because they are in power and they want to continue this way,” said political analyst Christos Christoforou. “We are going back to a cold war mentality and the sixties rhetoric which is negatively affecting the situation.”
Observer Sofronis Sofroniou agreed. “It’s the old story, Papadopoulos is not willing to go forward. It’s as simple as that. He has his own objections to certain aspects of the Annan plan and somehow he is very negative. He has been negative all his life,” he said.
“Most people want a solution, but somehow Papadopoulos and AKEL are not sufficiently convincing. The situation is very disappointing.”
But Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides hit back at the criticism levelled against the Greek Cypriot side. Commenting on the Denktash statement, he told the Sunday Mail: ”This is a turnabout? Has he written to the Secretary-general or said officially they are ready to negotiate as we did? We say, yes, these are words, but there is no concrete evidence of a change of heart.”
