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I am the democratically elected leader of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I have also led Turkish Cypriot negotiations to find a settlement to the Cyprus question since 1968. When I read that Tassos Papadopoulos had recently been elected "to the highest office of the Republic of Cyprus" (The Washington Times Commentary pages, "Towards a viable Cyprus solution," March 10) I was both off ended and disheartened.

The claim implicit in this statement –that the Greek Cypriot leader is the president of the whole of Cyprus, elected by the entire population of the island – is counter factual, legally and morally deficient, and has been the fatal stumbling block preventing a settlement in the island for the last 40 years.

Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. This enduring principle enunciated by the Founding Fathers of the American nation has inspired many peoples throughout history in their quest for freedom and human dignity. The Turkish Cypriot people, owing no allegiance to the Greek Cypriot administration, have never given their consent to the so-called "government of Cyprus."

Furthermore, the Turkish Cypriots, as the real victims in a campaign of ethnic cleansing launched by the Greek Cypriots in 1963 and still suffering under Greek Cypriot inspired embargoes on all their domestic and international activity, could hardly have done so, since that would have meant participation in their own destruction.

The assaults and injustices that have been perpetrated against the Turkish Cypriots as well as the isolation imposed on them, have been the work of the so-called "government of Cyprus."

To hear Mr. Papadopoulos repeat the baseless claim of being "victims of a continuing invasion and foreign occupation" leads us to believe that the new Greek Cypriot leadership will fallow the instruction of its predecessors, insofar as the campaign of propaganda and deception is concerned. It seems that Mr. Papadopoulos, as an ex-EOKA (Greek Cypriot underground organization dedicated to the illegal union of Cyprus with Greece) militant, is the new standard-bearer of a reactionary policy dictated b y the implacable in the Greek Cypriot National Council, Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus and an ingrained anti-Turkish culture in the Greek Cypriot society.

On the more positive side, "realism" and "the viability of a future settlement" are guiding principles, together with equality and justice, in our quest for reconciliation. We have always cautioned against a toothless "paper made solution."

Thus, Turkish Cypriots could hardly afford to entrust their lives affairs" based on non-existent trust, without firm and concrete security guarantees provided by Turkey. We have insisted that our rights and status in the new partnership enterprise be based on genuine sovereign equality. We have defended the agreed principle of bizonality; and, we have proposed that the solution of the property question rest on the practical formula of exchange and compensation.

I could not, in good conscience, accept a proposition that would dismantle the fundamental structures of peace and stability in Cyprus and the region, and put at risk our survival and identity as a distinct people on the island. For, if any new scheme goes up in flames –like the attempted destruction of the Turkish Cypriots by Greek Cypriots after the 1960 equal-partnership constitution was torched a mere three years later – blood will be on my hands.

A minimum threshold of trust is essential to any agreement worth its salt. The Greek Cypriot side has frustrated that trust by insisting on the nonexistence of the TRNC and the fanciful delusion that the Greek Cypriots enjoy sovereignty over the entire island. Any formula for a just and lasting settlement should have included fundamental amendments to the United Nations secretary-general’s framework.

Territorial adjustments would uproot half the population of the TRNC, making them refugees in their own land and confronting them with grim economic, social, and psychological consequences. Yet the U.N. plan disregarded the human consequences of such an upheaval, involving the cession of nearly a quarter of TRNC territory, with some of the most fertile land annexed to the Greek Cypriot side.

An agreement cannot plant the seeds of TRNC’s extinction. Thus, it is unacceptable that Greek Cypriots infiltrate the North in percentages that would threaten the ability of Turkish Cypriots to control their own destiny in one of the two equal states of a unified Cyprus.

It must be remembered that Greek Cypriots uniformly dispute the existence of the TRNC; they are indoctrinated from infancy to believe the North is a defilement of Hellenistic destiny.

On the core issue of governance, decisions that bear on the supreme interests of Turkish Cypriots in a settlement should require a consensus from separate Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot majorities.

Time and events may enable a mutually acceptable evolution of central government powers in Cyprus from a less ambitious but more prudent starting point to a more integrated one. The European Common Market of 1956 has evolved by mutual agreement into the European Union of 2003. Considering the chilling history of Turkish Cypriots and attitudes that prevail on Cyprus, the European model of careful and cautious steps should be the North Star of future Cyprus negotiations and expectations.

I launched, as recently as April 2, 2003 a new initiative aimed at confidence building between the two sides through a process of dialogue and consultation, leading to a comprehensive settlement. I am still eager for a constructive response. Diplomatic solutions should be cultivated, not taken by storm.

RAUF DENKTASH
Mr. Denktash is president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.