PRESIDENT Papadopoulos, as had been widely expected, expressed his complete opposition to the proposed Cyprus settlement, in an ultra-emotional address to the Greek Cypriot people last night. He ended his 50-minute speech with tears in his eyes, passionately urging people to reject the Annan plan and vote ‘no’ in the April 24 referendum to ‘preserve the Cyprus Republic’.
His address was totally bereft of objective analysis of the pro and cons of the fifth version of the Annan plan, something which had been promised by presidential spokesmen. Instead he gave a recital in unrelenting negativity and scare-mongering in a clear attempt to frighten people into rejecting the plan.
Ironically, he started his speech by urging people to avoid fanaticism and then spent the remaining 50 minutes speaking like a fanatical ‘no-voter’. And he concluded his speech with a rousing appeal to people, the likes of which had not been seen since the days of the late Archbishop Makarios.
He focused on all aspects of the plan he considered unfavourable, laying heavy emphasis on the UN’s failure to satisfy the Greek Cypriots requirements and speculated on the possibility of these going badly wrong. He covered the positive elements in a couple of sentences, but also found weaknesses in these, compounding the bleak picture he had gone out of his way to paint.
Predictably, Papadopoulos showed he is a lawyer obsessed with detail, rather than a politician with a vision, who would use the plan to deliver something better for future generations. The president preferred to focus on the small-print in order to build a case against the plan which would “perpetuate the partition of the island, with our signature”.
The aim of re-unification was not secured he lamented, failing to see that it created the basis on which re-unification, as he envisaged it, could be built. By rejecting the plan, the chances of the re-unification, he, supposedly, yearns will never be achieved and permanent partition would be a certainty.
There was one positive element to last night’s address. The president finally came clean, ending the 14-month charade he had been playing about his alleged commitment to a solution based on the Annan plan.
In these 14 months, he had been telling us that he wanted to make the plan workable so that a solution would be viable and lasting. The UN incorporated almost all his proposals for a more workable solution, so why would he not accept the plan? As he said, at least three times during his address, he could not accept the fact the Cyprus Republic would be dissolved in order to give way to the new state of affairs, as there were big risks. What he didn’t say was that the dissolution of the Republic was an integral aspect of the Annan plan which he had supposedly accepted as a basis for a solution.
Last night it became abundantly clear that President Papadopoulos had never been committed to a solution based on the Annan plan. He may have reluctantly agreed to the procedure proposed by the UN Secretary-general in New York, he may have attended the negotiations in Cyprus and Burgenstock, but his ultimate objective was to avoid a settlement. He proved this last night with his propagandist address and impassioned plea to the people to vote ‘no’.
