TURKEY sprang another surprise on Cyprus yesterday when Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Ankara favoured swift referenda on the basic principles of the Annan plan, adding other thorny issues could be resolved later.
President Tassos Papadopoulos responded by saying Ankara was sowing the seeds of confusion.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan started the ball rolling on Saturday when he said Ankara was willing to allow the UN to “fill in the blanks” on unresolved issues in the Annan plan.
Since then, pressure has been mounting on the Greek Cypriot side for a response, but Nicosia and Athens have reacted coolly to Turkey’s apparent race for a solution before Cyprus joins the EU on May 1.
In view of the tight timeframe, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan has asked both sides to fix a date for simultaneous referenda before an agreement is reached.
“We propose that very important issues could be put to a referendum and other issues could be discussed later,” Gul said yesterday before leaving for Washington, where he will join Erdogan for talks with senior US officials.
“This shows our sincerity in the search for a solution.
“It is difficult to get a solution before May 1, but we are obliged to meet the challenge,” Gul told reporters.
However, Papadopoulos, leaving for Strasbourg yesterday, said Turkey’s political will for a settlement remained to be seen. “We still don’t know what is the political will Mr. Erdogan has expressed,” the President said. “There are conflicting remarks which have caused only confusion on precisely what they want. I wish there was political will on their part and we would welcome it,” he said.
He reiterated the Greek Cypriot side’s willingness to return to the negotiating table as soon as the Secretary-general would call for talks.
Papadopoulos also dismissed Ankara’s call for the appointment a new mediator to replace Peruvian diplomat Alvaro de Soto.
Papadopoulos said this was akin to match fixing at a football game. “You just start accusing the referee,” he said.
Foreign Minister George Iacovou said yesterday efforts were under way to arrange a meeting between Papadopoulos and Annan in Brussels following the President’s trip to Strasbourg.
Iacovou said the Greek Cypriot side would like to confer with the UN, not only to be informed on Erdogan’s positions, but also to find out how Annan viewed the latest developments.
He said that Ankara’s statements so far indicated Turkey fell outside the framework of the Annan plan, since they were talking about negotiations that would will lead to a quick agreement on principles and a final settlement later.
One Turkish analyst said yesterday a swift settlement was not in the Greek Cypriots’ interest.
“They will prefer to buy time. They get the full cake in May anyway, so why should they settle for half the cake now,” Dogu Ergil of the Ankara-based TOSAM think-tank told Reuters.
