Hasan Erçakıca
Yeni Düzen Turkish Cypriot daily
21.02.2006

Greek Cypriot Leader Papadopoulos is planning to play a plot.

He is trying his best to get us to see, from his point of view, the phase that the Cyprus problem is currently in. He is concealing and even distorting the realities for this.

Today, Papadopoulos is expected to meet with the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. According to articles appearing in last week's press, it was reported that Papadopoulos had been assured by Annan that the Turkish proposals would not be discussed during today's meeting. This was widely covered by the Greek Cypriot press. However, on Friday, the UN Secretary-General announced that during his meeting with Papadopoulos the Turkish proposals would be evaluated. According to the Greek Cypriot Cyprus News Agency, responding to a question asked regarding the Turkish proposals, Annan said: "I've examined them (proposals) and am meeting with the relevant parties on this issue". Annan said: "As you know, I will be meeting with President Tassos Papadopoulos to discuss the Cyprus issue as well as this issue".

During the weekend, another story appeared in the press. In an interview given to a Greek daily, Papadopoulos claimed that the UN had accepted three of his requests regarding the negotiation process. Papadopoulos had said: "From now on, there will be no arbitration and time constraint in the settlement efforts, only an agreed settlement will be presented to the people for their approval. This is a great achievement".

As someone who has been following the Cyprus problem for years, I can comfortably say that UN diplomats are not in the position to accept or reject either one of the two side's requests. In any case, it had been announced that in today's meeting between Annan and Papadopoulos "the negotiation methods" would be discussed. The reason why Annan is not keen to restart the negotiations is because he couldn't get the two sides to agree on the negotiation method. The fact that he is only meeting with Papadopoulos indicates that Papadopoulos is the source of the problem.

In this situation, could Annan and Papadopoulos have agreed on some issues?

Definitely not! But, in order to deceive Turkish Cypriots and his own public opinion he is putting forward and getting published issues, which he cannot deny.

Another of the Greek Cypriot side's distortions is the allegation that they had submitted the list of their requested changes to the UN Secretary-General, who had previously requested this. Greek Cypriot Spokesmen are confronted with this question every day and they always say the same thing: "We've submitted the list of our requested changes to the Annan Plan".

In a statement issued last week, the Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Yorgo Yakovu also made the same allegation.

The proposals which they claim to have "submitted" are the amendments they verbally dictated to Kierran Prendergast, the UN Secretary-General's Assistant for Political Affairs, almost one year ago. In face of this, the issue has not been closed and constantly comes onto the agenda. Because, these are not the amendments that the UN Secretary-General requested from them. What the UN Secretary-General expects from the Greek Cypriot side are much more concrete and listed amendments.

Because the Greek Cypriot side knows that the UN Secretary-General cannot openly humiliate them, it continues to distort the issue.

In fact, the main reason why I'm writing this article is because on Sunday night I came across another statement in the Cyprus News Agency.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, which is the Greek Cypriot side's official news agency, Papadopoulos has said that he would ask Annan to appoint a new envoy as soon as possible in order to prepare the ground for negotiations.

Everyone knows that UNFICYP's new chief of mission, Michael Moller, was sent to the island with this mission. In other words, whether we like it or not, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Moller at the same time to be his "special representative". The reason why Moller has not taken any serious steps towards restarting the negotiations is not because he does not have the authority to do this, but because of the lack of an appropriate ground and because the Papadopoulos administration is preventing this with cunning tactics.

Announcing that he will ask Annan to appoint a new Cyprus envoy, Papadopoulos is trying to create the wrong impression about why the negotiation process could not be resumed.

As if all of this was not enough, now the Greek Cypriot side is threatening to use its "veto". While taking up the "veto" or other issues, they are saying that they are acting on behalf of "Cyprus". In all their statements we can observe that they find themselves befitting to use the name "Cyprus". In order to get themselves accepted as being the sole representatives of the people living in Cyprus, they are continuing to use this name.

In fact, if they weren't politicians they could easily find jobs as journalists who are experts in manipulating the facts.

Of course, from the Greek Cypriot side's point of view, there is a meaning and aim behind all this. Their sole aim is to portray themselves as being the owners of Cyprus, hide the Cyprus problem from the eyes of the world, and delay a Cyprus settlement for as long as possible.