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| Europe |
| Cypriot, Greek Leaders Against U.N. Plan |
| 2004-04-08 |
| Via Lucianne, see, they can agree on something! Both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders came out Wednesday against a United Nations (news - web sites) plan to reunify the war-divided island, and urged voters to reject it in a referendum set for April 24. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) submitted the plan as a last-ditch attempt to reunite the island after 30 years of separation before Cyprus joins the EU on May 1. The two sides and the Greek and Turkish governments failed on March 29 to reach an agreement of their own after lengthy talks. Veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s opposition has long been known, but his Greek Cypriot counterpart, President Tassos Papadopoulos, had withheld judgment until now. In a televised speech, Papadopoulos said that rather than leading to the reunification of Cyprus, the plan "makes its (current) partition permanent." "After judging all the facts and with a full realization of the historic moment we live through and my heavy responsibility, I am sincerely sorry that I cannot sign acceptance of the Annan plan," Papadopoulos said. Denktash held a news conference in Ankara where he also urged voters to reject the plan. Denktash repeated his belief that the plan will make Cyprus a Greek Cypriot island and wipe out Turkish Cypriots in the northern half. This kind of reads like really REALLY bad pun - deja-jew< SNIP/SMALL> "The plan writes off the Turkish invasion and the consequences of the occupation" and legitimizes "the illegal presence of the tens of thousands of Turkish mainland settlers, Papadopoulos said. Polls have shown a majority of Greek Cypriots are against the plan. Their main objections is that it limits the right of all Greek Cypriot refugees — numbering about 200,000 — to return to the north and reclaim their properties in compliance with Security Council resolutions, while allowing more than 60,000 Turkish mainland settlers in the north to remain. He said the plan violates basic human rights and principles of the European Union (news - web sites) ensuring the right of refugees to return and to repossess their properties. How about repossessing European properties taken in the 40s, hmmm???? -SNIP- |
| Posted by:Anonymous2U |
| #8 I've three, count 'em (3) kinds o popcorn out and Murat doesn't show. I say fooey. |
| Posted by: O Redenbocker 2004-04-08 3:23:51 PM |
| #7 Here's a link to the plan, http://www.cyprus-un-plan.org/ I think that Cyprus, if it's truly looking for unity, should agree to the plan. It's the best offer it's gotten in the last 30 years, and it's not likely to get any better offer any time soon. The 50-50 power share isn't an exact truth: The unified state will have a bicameral parliament, one chamber of which will have proportional representation, even though the other one will be evenly divided. The Presidency will be shared on a 50-50 basis, yeah, and that's a true negative: but once again I don't see any better offer being made. The presidential council will be divided 2 to 1 in favour of the Greek cypriots. As for the "intervention", it is already taking place -- and I think it may not be that difficult to later make an amendment to the constitution that removes this in its entirety. --- If not this plan, then I'll be going with Stefanos Manos' position as the only remaining option: Division. The Greek Cypriots accepting all the territorial and property concessions and in return giving recognition and allowing EU membership to the Turkish Cypriot state. The division plan doesn't actually *appeal* to me one bit, and there's no chance in hell of it actually being accepted by the Greek Cypriots, but if the Annan plan is rejected, then I really don't see any better option existing. Ugly new flag though. Couldn't they have atleast included the olive branches to break the monotony? |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-04-08 12:13:36 PM |
| #6 we associate editors are noisy as all hell Yaaarr! We be Associate Editors! Nah, it just doesn't sound right. How about Acolyte Of Fred? |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-04-08 11:37:07 AM |
| #5 No stealth editors on Rantburg! Why, we associate editors are noisy as all hell, wear buckets on our feet, we do. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-04-08 11:13:48 AM |
| #4 ARis - I just copied what the AP(?) (why won't it link) wrote, Aris. I got tsked because headlines were getting "too creative." Don't blame the messenger. Unless a stealth edit was performed...... |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-04-08 10:47:40 AM |
| #3 The Cypriots do indeed rejct the plan - thus far. Your reasons though, are erroneous. The actual objections are two, one soft and one hard,although they are rarely stated: - the soft one: the Greek-Cypriots (82% of population and currently responsible for ~90% of GDP) reject the plan's mandate of 50-50 power sharing with the Turkish-Cypriots (18%, ~10% of GDP) and -the hard one: they reject the plan's allowing third parties (Greece, Turkey and UK) a constitutionally guaranteed right of intereference (including militarily) in their internal affairs. The third parties naturally refuse to accept that the Cypriots can tell them to butt out and they have designed a plan that secures them on that front. It's that simple. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4089 2004-04-08 10:19:31 AM |
| #2 Your title is wrong. "Cypriot, Greek leaders against UN plans" implies that both the leaders of Cyprus' and Greece oppose it. That's wrong. The Greek prime minister hasn't taken a position yet (because he's a wimp IMO) and the chief opposition in Greece has supported it. If you'd removed the word "Greek" and left the title "Cypriot leaders oppose the plan", you'd have been accurate since both the Greek-cypriot president and the Turkish-cypriot one have opposed it. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-04-08 9:30:06 AM |
| #1 Butter or plain or cajun? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-04-08 8:51:32 AM |