Eroglu wants to put his conditions in the negotiations; Reference to the Annan Plan
Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes newspaper (25.04.12) reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu has said that their stance regarding the future of the negotiations will be determined after the meeting he will hold with UN Secretary-General’s special adviser on Cyprus, Alexander Downer on Friday, 27 April. Responding to a question during one of his meetings yesterday, Eroglu noted that before the meeting on Friday it would not be right to comment on scenarios regarding the “freezing” of the negotiations or continuation of the process at the level of the representatives of the leaders.
Eroglu reiterated that last Saturday he had a telephone conversation with the UN Secretary-General to whom he expressed his views, but Ban Ki-moon heard him without making any comment.
Eroglu said that they will decide on the course of the negotiations after taking UN Secretary-General’s view and argued that it would not be right to suspend the negotiations, because this would mean that the negotiations would be postponed after the presidential elections in the Republic of Cyprus. He went on reiterating his known allegation by arguing the following:
“This means that the negotiations will continue. I say it often: if the negotiations start again, our conditions should also be put onto the table. Otherwise, negotiations with this mentality might continue for a hundred years . Because the Greek Cypriots are a state, [because they are] EU members, they do not want arbitration, mediation, time limit. That is, they have no problem if the negotiations continued for another hundred years. However, we feel discomforted by the continuation of the negotiations without an agreement. We are under embargoes, not being recognized results in some unjust treatments. Therefore we insist on sitting at a negotiating table where we could also put our conditions”.
Eroglu said that they will determine their way of action after holding evaluations among them following his meeting with Downer on 27 April. He noted that there are some scenarios against every possibility in his mind.
Meanwhile, according to Gunes (25.04.12), in statements during another meeting Eroglu referred to the referendum on the Annan Plan held on 24 April 2004. He said that with their “no” vote, the Greek Cypriots showed that they are in favour of the continuation of the Republic of Cyprus and argued: “What is actually in the mind of the Greek Cypriots now is the continuation of the Republic of Cyprus and us becoming a part of this Republic”.
Responding to a question, Eroglu claimed that “if the Greek Cypriots had accepted the Annan Plan, they would have acquired a great chance”. He noted that he has said this to President Christofias at the negotiations. He argued: “I said to Christofias that if I were in their shoes, I would have seized the plan. With the plan we would leave important land to the Greek Cypriots, we would have permitted the Greek Cypriots to return to the land where we thought they would have stayed. A new formation, in which we could melt economically, would come to surface. Turkey’s guarantees were watered down in the plan and its military existence would have ceased. The rejection even of such a plan by the Greek Cypriots should have given a message to the world”.
Eroglu claimed that they should have used the “no” vote of the Greek Cypriots, but they could not secure the necessary benefits because negotiations resumed. He added: “We could not show to the world that the Greek Cypriots are intransigent. We have lost the opportunity, which had been given to us by the Greek Cypriots saying no. We have lost this opportunity with the change of president and the quick start of the negotiations right afterwards…Now the Greek Cypriot side is trying to present us again as the intransigent side…”
