TURKISH CYPRIOT leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday that he wanted a referendum before the signing of any possible agreement on the Annan plan.
“This is a legal obligation. We will bring this to the attention of (UN envoy Alvaro) de Soto today so he knows about it and is not faced with a surprise,” Denktash told the Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK.
The Annan plan, which is being negotiated by Denktash and President Glafcos Clerides, calls for a referendum on after an agreement is signed. The deadline for a deal is February 28, with plans for separate referenda on March 30, in time for a united Cyprus to sign the EU accession treaty in April.
Denktash has come under heavy pressure since his side failed to sign a preliminary agreement on the Annan plan during the EU summit in Copenhagen last month. Tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots demonstrated against him last week in the north, calling for a deal to be signed or for the veteran leader to resign.
Denktash told TAK yesterday that ‘TRNC laws’ required that agreements which “bring limitations to its sovereignty and international existence” be put on a referendum before they are signed and ratified by parliament.
“Knowing well that the Turkish side’s demands are not going to be accepted without any change, Denktash has announced that he is not going to sign the final package that will emerge,” Turkish mainland newspaper Milliyet reported yesterday.
“Denktash has announced that even if the “Annan plan’s latest version” came to be accepted in a referendum he would still refuse to sign it as the “negotiator.”
He says that he would ask Parliament to find a new negotiator, the paper added. “I would not destroy my people. Let anyone who dares, sign it,” Denktash was quoted as saying.
“Thus, he gives the message that a new negotiator who would be willing to sign the document may come to be branded as a traitor,” Milliyet said.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
