PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday lashed out at the international community, in the morning launching an angry broadside against top US officials for their “hostile” and “counterproductive” stance on the Cyprus problem, before last night accusing the island’s “foreign friends” of acting as “censors and overlords”.
Papadopoulos was responding to reports that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had formally addressed Mehmet Ali Talat as “Mr Prime Minister” in Washington, and to a reference by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher to the “Greek Cypriot government”, a departure from the politically correct “Cyprus government”.
Speaking in English yesterday morning, the President said some countries apparently wanted to punish the Greek Cypriots for voting overwhelmingly to reject the Annan plan on April 24.
“I think if these were intentional mistakes and not a slip of the tongue, they must be deemed by us as being very hostile acts and I would add they are counterproductive if we all aim at bringing about the reunification of Cyprus through negotiations and not bringing about a definite divisive line between the two sides,” Papadopoulos told reporters after a meeting with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus.
CyBC reported last night that Boucher had sought to play down the furore at his media briefing yesterday, saying his reference to the Greek Cypriot government was a mistaken choice of words and that there was no issue of direct or indirect recognition of the Turkish Cypriot regime by the US government.
There was no specific clarification, however, regarding Powell’s reported comments.
Papadopoulos insisted American attitudes were not very productive. “It seems that some countries think in that way, they want to punish the people of Cyprus, who, exercising their sovereign right, voted ‘no’ to this particular plan,” he said.
“We think that the question of the status of the Turkish Cypriot community cannot be just changed by statements such as these. There are international and other treaties and decisions, which control that,” he insisted.
Speaking at a state banquet for President Klaus last night, Papadopoulos continued in the same vein.
“The foreign friends who seem to have chosen the road of becoming censors and overlords over the political will of the Greek Cypriot community, rather than mediators, and who in certain cases make statements that are characterised by a vengeful spirit, would do better to look into their own actions concerning the reasons for the negative result as well as the nature and the targets of the negotiations of the UN representatives.”
Referring to the referendum on the Annan plan, he said if did “not make sense to talk about the expression of the democratic choice between two equally acceptable choices when there are direct or indirect threats that if the choice is not ‘yes’, punishment or sanctions will follow.”
“In such a case the inalienable right of the free choice of the citizens is done away with.”
The Greek Cypriot side is furious at the warm welcome given to Talat during a historic visit to Washington. The Turkish Cypriot ‘yes’ in the referendum has scored significant points in the international community, which has apportioned a large share of the blame for the Greek Cypriot rejection of the plan to Papadopoulos, who called for a “resounding no”.
The Turkish Cypriot side and Ankara have since launched a diplomatic offensive to end their isolation in the international community, particularly in the EU and in Washington, which have not taken kindly to the Greek Cypriot ‘no’.
Although there has been no confirmation of Powell’s apparent reference to Talat as ‘Prime Minister’, Boucher’s reference to the “Greek Cypriot government” was made during his press briefing on Wednesday, when he said the US deplored the bomb attack on the home of DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades, whose party supported the plan.
“We look forward to a full and thorough investigation by the Greek Cypriot government and to their apprehension of those who are responsible for this,” Boucher said.
Papadopoulos also criticised Boucher for saying that there would be no more negotiations on the UN plan.
“I didn’t know that Mr Boucher was in charge of the negotiations. At least publicly he was not,” Papadopoulos said pointedly. “We will continue our effort in spite of what others would say. I want to stress the will for an agreement to reunify Cyprus comes through the people itself. And I think in the end this will prevail.”
