Ankara rejects Cyprus unity deal
Helena Smith in Athens
Friday March 7, 2003
The Guardian
Hopes of implementing a UN plan to reunite Cyprus showed every sign of being snuffed out last night when Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, rejected the peace deal.
Their judgment was delivered just a few days before a scheduled crucial meeting between the peace plan's architect, Kofi Annan, and the divided island's leaders.
After a day of "historic talks" aimed at forging a common position on the island's future, the political and military establishment in Ankara appeared to side with Mr Denktash, agreeing that the UN blueprint was "unbalanced and unjust".
"In its current state, the Annan plan far from meets the expectations of the Turkish side," Turkey's presidential spokesman, Tacan Ildem, told reporters after the discussions.
Emerging from the meeting, attended by the Turkish president, prime minister, foreign minister and chief of staff, Mr Denktash said he would not only reject the plan but seek to have it drastically altered.
He is due to have talks with Mr Annan, the UN secretary general, and the newly elected Greek Cypriot president, Tassos Papadopoulos, in the Netherlands next Monday.
Mr Annan has repeatedly described the forthcoming rendezvous as "the last chance" to reunify the island before it accedes to the EU on April 16.
In a final attempt to get both sides to agree to the accord, he made a five-day trip to the region last week. The deal, which requires the Turkish Cypriots to surrender territory seized during the 1974 invasion by the army, is widely seen as the best offer yet of healing the island's 29-year division.
"The secretary general, presumably so he didn't go home empty handed, said come to the Hague even if you are going to say no," Mr Denktash told the Turkish parliament.
"That is how we will go to the Hague, but we will go strengthened as the result of the talks in Ankara. We go with goodwill and we will seek ways to change this plan. God willing we will find them."
Mr Denktash's self-declared republic of northern Cyprus (TRNC) depends exclusively for support from Turkey, the only country to acknowledge it internationally.
But his ties with the motherland have cooled dramatically since the ascent to office in November of the reformist, Islamic-leaning Justice and Development party (AKP).
Turkey's de facto leader and AKP head, Tayyip Erdogan, appears acutely aware that failure to settle Cyprus could spoil Ankara's own chances of accession to the EU.
He is believed to have urged Mr Denktash to soften his stance in private talks yesterday.
Turkish Cypriots have not discounted the possibility of meeting Mr Annan's request to hold a referendum on the UN plan - alongside their Greek compatriots in the internationally recognised south - before either side officially approves it.
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