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“PAPADOPOULOS:
THE MOST UNSUITABLE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY” (13.08.02)
The
Sunday Mail gave very significant reasons as to why the DIKO-AKEL candidate
Tassos Papadopoulos is “the most unsuitable person in Cyprus for the post of
President of the Republic”. It
was stated that “it is absurd to expect any great change from someone who
has been active in politics for 42 years and has always been a leading member
of the political establishment. Touching
on the argument of his supporters when he is accused of being a politician
from the 60’s generation and mentality the defence that he is no different
from Clerides was classed as laughable.
There
are mainly two objections to his candidacy.
The first reason being his extreme and unrealistic views on the
national problem. This in
combination with his passed was stated to make him conclusively unsuitable for
President. The main
responsibility of the president supposedly is the pursuit of a Cyprus
settlement through negotiations with Turkish Cypriots.
On this count it was stated that “Papadopoulos does not want a
settlement”. The paper
justified this allegation as follows: “His philosophy on the Cyprus issue,
if his words are anything to go by, is ‘no settlement’.
On countless occasions in the past he has argued, both verbally and in
writing, that the best solution is the maintenance of the status quo—the
solution of staying as we are”
The
role Papadopoulos played in the 1963 strife with Turkish Cypriots are also
another issue. The fact that
Clerides also played a role in the Akritas Plan was also mentioned but was
stated that Clerides was able to break away from his past through the years.
The paper went further and stated that “it would be no exaggeration
to say that only those people who do not want a Cyprus settlement and do not
care about the consequences are justified in voting for Papadopoulos.
The
second major objection regards the fact that he has a very bad image abroad.
Apparently the US administration has a severe dislike for him.
The consequences of having as President such a disliked person by the
superpower of the world brings questions to mind. The paper summed this issue as such: “I wonder how it would
be possible for any Cypriot with common sense to cast a presidential ballot
for the only politician with whom the most powerful country in the world does
not want to have any dealings”. Another
very important fact is the question as to how persuasive he can be in the UN
General Assembly when demanding the implementation of UN resolutions on
Cyprus. The fact is that the
representatives of all major countries will be thinking the part he played in
violating the UN sanctions on Yugoslavia.
It seems very unlikely that he will be able to persuade anyone he had
nothing to with this as Europe’s most authoritative publications have been
reporting his involvement.
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