E.U. ENLARGEMENT Commissioner Guenter Verheugen yesterday accused Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash of failing to seize opportunities for peace and said he no longer represented a majority of his people.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Verheugen said he was more optimistic now on the prospects for a deal to reunite the divided island before it joins the European Union on May 1, despite what he called the public “battle cries” of both sides.
“Don’t be nervous if there is a public impression which seems to show that there is little progress. In my view we are coming closer and closer,” he said.
He acknowledged that time for a deal was very short and said the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader was to blame for the crunch.
Denktash refused to attend final negotiations that began in Switzerland on Wednesday between the two communities on Cyprus and their two motherlands, Greece and Turkey. If there is no deal, all sides have agreed to let UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan bridge the final gaps and put the result to referenda on both sides of the island on April 20.
Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat, a moderate opponent of Denktash, is taking part in the talks but the 80-year-old Denktash has threatened to campaign for a “no” vote if a deal does not meet his conditions.
“I think a strong majority of the Turkish Cypriots is in favour of both a settlement plus accession. That’s obvious,” Verheugen said. “I do not believe that Denktash is still representing the majority of the Turkish Cypriots.”
The commissioner said his optimism was based on the fact that all sides had accepted Annan’s framework peace plan as a basis for talks and were negotiating about the details of legal instruments to implement it.
EU officials said the key sticking point concerned the way in which a peace deal on issues such as refugee return, property rights, security arrangements and limits on people’s freedom to settle in northern Cyprus would be accommodated under EU law.
Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots want permanent derogations from such rules enshrined in primary EU law, which would require a new treaty to be ratified by all 25 future EU member states. Greece and the Greek Cypriots oppose that and the European Commission argues it is an unnecessary and risky course.
The alternative is to negotiate long, fixed transition periods before normal EU law applies, or flexible transitional arrangements which could be reviewed and renewed later.
“You should not be surprised they are now in a period of very strong battle cries. There is a clear difference between their public statements and what is really happening in this very complicated process,” Verheugen said.
Verheugen acknowledged there was a risk that the Turkish Cypriots might vote “yes” and the Greek Cypriots “no” to the UN plan, leading to a situation where the Greek Cypriots join the EU alone.
Asked whether that would not be a perverse reward for the Greek Cypriots, he said: “This is the responsibility of the stubbornness of Mr Denktash.”
The Turkish side had had opportunities to settle the problem before the EU accession treaty was signed and ratified, and to participate in the entry negotiations, but had refused, he said.
Verheugen said Turkey’s reformist AK party government was working in good faith for a Cyprus deal and to meet political criteria for opening talks on Turkey’s own EU accession.
But he said practical implementation of new laws to guarantee democracy, human rights and the rule of law remained a big issue, six months before the Commission is due to report on whether Ankara is ready to start entry talks.
“The Turkish government is making very strong efforts to implement the reform package but there are obstacles… In some regions you have clear obstruction…(by) the military, part of the judiciary, part of the bureaucracy, the police, the intelligence community,” Verheugen said.
