The Greek Cypriot administration has clearly defined its unwil-lingness for a new start to negotiations based on the Annan plan.
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s 2006 request for the Greek side to make a written submission of their proposals on alterations to the plan has still not been met.
In addition, Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos declared his unwillingness to negotiate at the start of the talks, referring to “un-reasonable” time restrictions and the submission of a plan that had not previously been agreed upon. It is apparent that before the presidential elections, which will take place in February 2008, real progress toward a resolution should not be expected from the Greek Cypriot side.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that Mr. Papadopoulos’ policy will be abandoned if he is not re-elected or his presidential term reaches an end. The Greek Cypriot administration will carry on with general policy on the Cyprus issue, as has been unanimously agreed in the Greek National Council, consisting of all Greek political parties.
Greeks hold the advantage when one takes into consideration Turkey’s difficult negotiations with the EU. Submission of unacceptable proposals to the Turkish side by the Greek Cypriots has become common practice. It is probable that the Greek Cypriots will simply end the negotiations, claiming irreconcilability with the Turkish side. The other possibility is that they will exert international pressure on Turkey by starting negotiations only with the intent to prolong them indefinitely to cause further obstacles in Turkey’s EU accession process.
Calling Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat for talks on Sept. 5 is merely a show to influence Greek Cypriot voters in the coming presidential elections. Unless the international community takes measures to ease the embargos on Turkish Cypriots and calls for equal political treatment for them, there will be no reason for the Greek Cy-priot administration to continue seeking a solution.
One factor that will affect the progress of the Cyprus problem will be the actions of Greece. With a change in the cabinet of the New De-mocracy Party (NDK) government in February 2006, Greece became observably more active on the Cyprus problem, appointing Dora Ba-koyannis as foreign minister. In fact Bakoyannis stated immediately after her appointment that the Cyprus problem would be given priority among foreign affairs issues. Her comments during her visits to Greek Cyprus pointed out what line Greek Cyprus and Greece will take on the Cyprus issue and in Turkey’s EU accession talks as well. Bakoyannis’ first statement addressed the Annan plan; she asserted that it became null and void with the “no” vote of the Greeks and cannot be placed on the table again.
The views of the Turkish, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot people, and their support or opposition to their administration’s policy, will be instrumental in shaping future progress on the Cyprus problem. Concerning the morale of Turkish Cypriots, the hope and enthusiasm ignited by the opening of the borders on April 23, 2003, were extinguished by the disappointment of the referendum of April 24, 2004.
Lack of fulfillment of the promises to lift the embargos has created distrust of the EU by the Turkish Cypriots. While their economic conditions are improving, they are still faced with the looming uncer-tainty of their future, still hanging in political limbo, exacerbated by their misgivings regarding the EU. In the meantime Greek Cypriots are quickly moving away from the idea of living together with Turkish Cyp-riots, as was recently revealed in polls held in Greek Cyprus.
Greek Cypriot politicians and high-level bureaucrats have been nagging for years about the presence of the Turkish army in the terri-tories of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and some of the citizens they nicknamed “settlers.”
Most of these people, who were on purposely nicknamed settlers by Greek Cypriot as a form of degradation, were of Cypriot origin. Their parents immigrated to Turkey after the Lausanne Treaty, signed by the new Republic of Turkey and leading European countries in 1923. At that time the island of Cyprus was under British colonial rule and the efforts of Greek Cypriots for enosis were seeing their hay days.
These people preferred to live under Turkish yoke rather than English or Greek and immigrated to Turkey.
For them 1974 was a good opportunity to return to their own country and live under the newly born government called the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus, later the KKTC, which consisted solely of Turkish Cypriots, their kin.
Historically, and particularly since 1961, Greece has systemati-cally pursued a deliberate policy of colonizing and annexing Cyprus (a process they term “enosis”), due to which 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced to leave their homes, memories and belongings in 1964 after fierce attacks from Greek militia. A further 60,000 were displaced in 1974 as the result of the notorious coup d’etat against Archbishop Makarios III, staged by Greek generals in Greece.
This is being done in order to change the demographic structure of the island, to control and adulterate the 1960 Treaty of Establish-ment of the Republic of Cyprus. Such attempts at consolidating the transformation of Cyprus’s demographic character continued even after the events of 1974.
Under international law, mass transfers by a country of its own civilian population into territories outside its boundaries to change demographic structure is illegal. Greece sent over its own population to the island of Cyprus in the early 1900s, and more consistently since 1961.
When the backgrounds of the 500,000 voters in the May 2006 Greek Cypriot elections were analyzed, a stunning outcome surfaced, clearly revealing the number of Greek settlers clandestinely accumu-lated on the island since 1961.
The breakdown of “Greek settlers” on the island is approximately as follows:
Pontus Greek Cypriots: 60,000- 70,000
Citizens of the former Soviet Republic: 30,000
Christians who fled Lebanon: 15,000-20,000
Immigrants from Greece: 100,000
Asylum-seeking Kurds: 2,500-3,000
Asylum-seeking citizens from third countries: 9,500
Total “Greek settlers in Cyprus”: approximately 230,000
According to the existing but unpublished Greek Cabinet Decision of 1964, any Greek citizen who has done his military service in Cyprus or served in the Greek National Army (Ethniki Fruro) automatically becomes a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus (Greek Cyprus).
For years one Greek regiment and two battalions of Greek Com-mandos were deployed on the island and thousands of Greek officers served in the Greek Cypriot National Guard. These privates and army officers, who change every two years, have,since 1964 automatically become citizens.
Most Greek Cypriots go to study in Greece, get married and return to Cyprus. Their partners also immediately become citizens.
The Pontus Greeks (Pontii) and citizens of the former Soviet re-publics were made citizens soon after they settled on the island from 1974 and 1982, respectively.
Opening their arms to the wealthy Christians who fled the war in Lebanon, the Greek Cypriots also made them citizens. Furthermore, according to EU norms, Kurds and citizens from third countries who seek asylum automatically become citizens.
Why are only Turkish Cypriots consistently blamed for bringing in 40,000 settlers from Turkey while the Greek Cypriots are not, although around 230,000 non-Greek Cypriots are living in the south and dramatically changing the demographic structure of the island?
When will these “Greek Settlers” of around 230,000 and the “Greek mercenaries,” numbering officially 7,000 and unofficially prob-ably 15,000, go back?
Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Mehmet Ali Talat and Greek Cypriot president Tasos Papadopoulos will meet on Sept. 5 at Ledra Palace in the buffer zone of Lefkosa after a 14-month break. It is well known just who Tassos Papadopoulos is, what kind of solution to the Cyprus problem he has in mind and to where he will try to reroute the negotiations.
It wouldn’t be a fallacy to say that nothing will come out from this meeting, even now weeks before they meet. To prove this hypothesis, it should be enough just to dig a little into the past of Mr. Papadopoulos. He is one of the masterminds who drew up the notorious Akritas Plan under the code name “Defkalion,” aimed at ethnically cleansing the Turkish Cypriots from the island.
The other mastermind was Polycarpos Yorgacis, who was the mi-nister of interior affairs together with Papadopoulos as the minister of labor and social security in the 1960 cabinet of Makarios.
One is no better than the other
Yorgacis was executed by officers from Greece on the road to Dikmen (Dikomo) in March 1970, right after an assassination attempt on Makarios, and his murder case was filed away with the title “un-known assailant.”
This homicide is probably the only political homicide case in the world where the murderer is “unknown.” Everybody on the island, Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots, knows who did it but the Greek Cypriot police.
The history of attempted genocide on the island also recorded the message of Mr. Papadopoulos threatening Turkey with ethnic cleansing and execution of all the Turkish Cypriots within 45 minutes if dared to land troops on the island.
Just before the April 24 referendum, Mr. Papadopoulos showed up on local television and with tears in his eyes requesting “No” votes from the Greek Cypriots, mentioning the Annan plan’s blockade on the roads to enosis (a final union between Cyprus and Greece) and claimed that an internationally recognized republic cannot be downgraded to a new “United Cyprus Republic.”
Now what is expected from Papadopoulos
To change his mind or to say “Yes” to a sustainable federation solution to the Cyprus issue based on two sovereign federal states.
Now Mr. Papadopoulos is claiming that this time there should be no time limit and arbitration as was in Annan plan negotiations. So it won’t be a problem if the negotiations last for a further fifty years, as long as there is no time limit. And in conjunction with this provision, if both parties can not come to an agreement on a certain item, there would be no body to negotiate the midway.
With these in mind, the next stage of negotiations on the Cyprus issue will surely last for a further thirty years, on top of the existing 39 years since 1968. If the Cyprus problem had started in 1974, why did negotiations started on April 24, 1968?
Papadopoulos has in mind a kind of solution where Turkey would not be a guarantor or have any right to intervene in case Greece tries again to annex or change the structure of Cyprus Republic as was the case on July 15, 1974. He dreams that the Turkish troops and our fellow citizens will return to Turkey with no one left behind, and one day when the political situation is suitable, to ethnically cleanse the Turkish Cypriots, once and for all as outlined in the Akritas Plan in 1961.
Nothing sensible will come out of this meeting or any others as long as the Greek Cypriots do not accept Turkish Cypriots as the partners of the Republic of Cyprus.
Have you ever heard of the “barricades of shame” in Cyprus, built by the Greek Cypriots to isolate the Turkish Cypriots from the world and commit genocide on them by not allowing to Turkish quarters on Cyprus, particularly the capital city of Nicosia, the entry of food, water, electricity and basic needs for human survival, for four years running from 1964 to 1968?
The masterminds behind these “barricades” were the Interior Af-fairs Minister Polycarpos Yorgadjis and the Labor and Social Insurance Minister Tassos Papadopoulos, now the president of the Greek Cypriot government.
In August 1964, following the defeat of the Cypriot National Guard –Ethniki Fruro– reinforced with the 5,000 troops sent by mainland Greece in the Erenköy (Dilirga) battle, the Makarios government decided on ruthless economic sanctions together with armed attacks as the best means to destroy and suppress the Turkish Cypriots, who were supposed to be the founding partners of the 1960 Republic of Cyprus.
Nevertheless the masterminds in the Greek government believed that these two actions would, in the long run, prove a more effective weapon than a military offensive alone.
On the other hand, while the Turkish Cypriot community had mustered an armed force with the potential, though limited, to resist such an offensive, that community did not have the means to win an economic battle.
Following the Erenköy battle, the Greek government blocked all movement of Turkish people and supplies into the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Nicosia, Lefka, Limnitis and Kokkina. On Sept. 5, the Tur-kish Cypriot quarters of Famagusta and Larnaca were also blockaded.
The Turkish Cypriots were squeezed into open-air prisons and forced to eke out livings without food, water, electricity, clothing, medi-cine, movement, traveling, jobs, money and hopes for a future for four months.
By the Nov. 15 substantial freedom of movement had been allowed in and out of the enclaves, but government-imposed restrictions on materials necessary for human survival was still in force and included flour, medicine and milk for babies, together with the other 37 items.
On Nov. 20, 1964, the government allowed Turkish Cypriots to enter and leave the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Nicosia, subject to ri-gorous searches for any kind of goods. Vehicles carrying Turkish Cy-priots were forced to wait in the queue for hours and hours under the extreme summer heat and freezing cold of the winter for no specific reason. Some were carried away by the Greek police and never returned back; their bodies were never recovered.
Although the aim was to search vehicles, it was actually to show off the might of the Greek government and non-existence of human rights for Turkish Cypriots.
During the period immediately preceding Nov. 20, 1964, only 10-20 Turkish Cypriots had been allowed to enter the Turkish quarter of capital city Nicosia daily. About the same number was being turned away.
In the first 10 days following the lifting of restricted movement, a daily average of 325 Turkish Cypriots were allowed to enter Turkish Cypriot quarter in Nicosia, though the same number of Turkish Cy-priots had to leave before sunset.
During the entire period of these “Greek Barricades of Shame” — August 1964 to November 1967 — the Greek government maintained strict blockades of all the Turkish enclaves, though June 10, 1965 it lifted its restrictions on the imports of some foodstuffs and materials.
The alleged “strategic materials” list was revised several times be-fore it was withdrawn completely in March 1968. The most significant effect of this list was to prevent the importation of any building or maintenance materials and spare automotive or electrical parts into Turkish Cypriot enclaves. The result was a progressive deterioration of Turkish Cypriot housing and means of production.
During the period starting from Dec. 21, 1963 until the Turkish intervention on July 20, 1974, when, according to Greek Cypriots and their Pinocchio-like politicians, both Turkish and Greek Cypriots were happily living, funds normally paid to the Turkish Cypriot community were spent on Greek Cypriots, as Turkish Cypriot competition was totally destroyed and demolished, as well as degrading Turkish Cy-priots.
The recession of the Turkish Cypriot sector of the economy would have been even more severe were it not for Red Crescent relief ship-ments and financial aid from mainland Turkey.
The inhuman “Greek barricades of shame,” which isolated Tur-kish Cypriots socially and commercially from the rest of the island and the world while restricting the freedom of movement and preventing even simple living, were in fact counterproductive because they served to increase inter-communal enmity while uniting Turkish Cypriots behind their leaders and strengthening their bonds with mainland Turkey.
In propaganda business, Greeks are quite skilful to decorate it with lies.
Since 1974, the Greek Cypriot leaders, Makarios, Kyprianou, Vasiliou, Klerides and Papadopulos, all the Greek Cypriot politicians in power, the institutions and the NGO’s under their control, as if they were a chorus, sang the fictitious “Cyprus problem started in 1974” number to their people and to the world, non stop.
And still they play the same tune.
Any Greek or European or even a foreigner, when questioned on the Cyprus issue, will mention that the problem started in 1974.
As if the island of Cyprus was covered with peace to the tiniest village before 1974 and the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot people were living happily together, with no problem at all. And one day, suddenly the Turkish army decided to invade the island and the peace was raped.
When you hear the Greeks, this is what they will tell you.
“The mother of the lies” would say one of the leading politicians of the modern times, who knew the Cyprus problem from the beginning to the end.
Even in the “Missing persons issue” they lied to their own people and to the world for years. And still they insist on the lie that all the missing Greek Cypriots are because of the Turkish Peace Mission which took place in July 20, 1974, as if no Greek Cypriot was killed in the coup d’Etad organized by the Greek Officers from Greece in July 15, 1974.
According to the Greek Cypriot press and the findings of the “Auto-nomous Missing Persons Committee”, at least 750 supporters of Maka-rios, were ruthlessly killed by the joint forces of EOKA-B and Greek Cypriot National Guards, under the command of the Greek Officers from Greece during the coup days.
Now the long lasting lie or the fictitious Greek propaganda on the missing persons issue is surfaced by the DNA tests of the “Autonomous Missing Persons Committee”. Most of them were found in the Greek Cypriot territories, where no armed clashes took place between Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Army.
The findings of the DNA tests are on the contrary to the fictitious Greek propaganda since 1974.
In the Protara area of the Famagusta district, a small mass grave found, bearing the bodies of the six innocent civilian Turkish Cypriots who were carried away from their offices by force by the Greek Cypriot bandits, members of the notorious EOKA organization, and killed ruth-lessly in the year 1964 and dumped to a well.
The total number of the civilian Turkish Cypriots, executed ruthlessly by these Greek Cypriot bandits, during the accursed years between 1964-1974 is exactly 502.
The Greek Cypriots ruthlessly killed 502 Turkish Cypriots before 1974 and still they build up the “Cyprus problem started in 1974” tale.
It seems now a days that most of the Greek Cypriots do not believe any more to their Pinocchio like politicians.
A ceremony was held couple of days before in the southern Greek Cy-priot area, on the commemoration of the Greek Cypriots who died in the severe fighting which took place on Erenkoy (Dillirga), in August 8-9, 1964, between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.
During the accursed years between 1964-1974, the Turkish Cypriots were under a genocide treatment and in August 8-9, 1964, the Cyprus Greek National Guards reinforced with the 5,000 soldiers of Greek troops amounting to 20,000 sent by the mainland Greece to Cyprus, attacked to the Turkish villages in Erenköy (Dillirga) area.
The commander of attacking forces, general Grivas even had advertised for 7 days on run in the local papers, to invite the Greek Cypriots to spectate the defeat of the Turkish Cypriots and the cleaning of the area from their eternal enemies.
But unexpected had happened, and the mighty Greek Cypriot forces had to retreat on august 9, 1964, with hundreds of losses and casual-ties. Mouse hole was invaluable at that very specific day.
I still don’t understand how the Greek politicians persistently say that the “Cyprus Problem started in 1974”, irrespective of the lives lost from the both people of the island, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, during the accursed years between 1964-1974.
If that is so and the Cyprus Problem had started in 1974, what hap-pened before 1974 in the island and the hundreds of lives from both people were withered.
There is a proverb in Turkish which says “The candle of the fabulist lasts till sunset”, which means there is always an end to a lie and the truth will emerge at the end.
So as the Cyprus issue. The sunset now seems very close.
