Annan issues warning to Cypriot leaders
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was today warning the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders that any failure to agree on his unification plan would entrench the division of the Mediterranean island.
“Decision time has arrived,” Annan wrote today in the International Herald Tribune – amid diminishing hopes of progress towards reunification.
Despairing of the inability of the two leaders to reach a deal in the lengthy talks he sponsored, Annan invited Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot Rauf Denktash to The Hague to tell him if they accept his proposal last week to test his peace plan in separate referendums.
Both leaders have said they want more negotiations on the plan. But Annan said that would be tantamount to scrapping the whole thing.
“The choice is not between my plan and a radically different one. The real choice is between my plan and no solution at all,” he wrote.
Hopes of a breakthrough dimmed following yesterday’s declaration by Denktash that “Annan’s plan does not yet have the qualities necessary to be submitted to a referendum.”
Denktash said in Ankara, Turkey, that he would seek key revisions in the plan.
Papadopoulos has said he would be ready to accept the referendum proposal but would also like to see changes: “We want a solution that is functional so that it is viable and hence lasting,” he said.
Annan has said the two leaders have until March 25 to agree to what he described as minor amendments so that the referendums can be carried out on March 30.
With the approval of the two communities, Cyprus can then sign an accession agreement with the European Union on April 16 as a united country.
If there is no agreement, the whole of Cyprus will be accepted as a member with provisions for EU laws to apply to the breakaway Turkish north only after the island is reunited.
Agreement on the plan would clear the way for both Greeks and Turks on Cyprus to enjoy the benefits of EU accession, Annan wrote, and “will become a cornerstone of peace-building on the island”.
If the two leaders fail to agree, he said, “the division of the island will be further entrenched,” and Turkey’s “European aspirations will be harmed.”
