tur2 News Feb 28, 2003 www.aljazeerah.info

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Turkish Cypriots demand acceptance of UN-backed peace plan
70,000 march as Deadline extended and no agreement in sight

Annan has asked the two sides to put his blueprint to a referendum regardless of the answer from the political leaders

Compiled by Daily Star staff

NICOSIA: Some 70,000 Turkish Cypriots, almost a third of the island’s Turkish population, marched in the divided capital of Nicosia Thursday, demanding that their leaders accept a UN-backed plan that would see Cyprus reunited before it enters the European Union.
The rally, one of the largest ever held on the Turkish side of Cyprus, came on the same day UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan held his first joint meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and newly elected Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos, as intensive negotiations for reunification continued into a second day.
Annan initially wanted the two sides to agree by Friday, but with no breakthrough in sight, the UN has said it would let that deadline slip. Annan has invited Denktash and Papadopoulos to The Hague on March 10 for a final answer, Turkish Cypriot sources said.
Denktash struck a defiant note Thursday, rebuffing pressure for a deal based on a peace blueprint he said held little new. “There is trickery … it is a sleight of hand,” he told reporters.
Annan has said he wants “real movement” on the carefully crafted blueprint which, if accepted, will see a reunited island join the European Union next year but if rejected leaves Cyprus as a source of friction between Athens and Ankara.
He has asked the two sides to put his blueprint to referendum regardless of the answer from the political leaders.
“Whether we want it or not, they want a commitment from us to take the issue to referendum. They want it done and dusted,” Denktash said.
“They are telling us to ask the public, bypassing the government, bypassing the Parliament, skipping our own decisions. The public hasn’t read this, the public does not know the details or where this is going to lead. This must be further scrutinized, then a referendum,” he said.
Diplomats said the plan addressed Turkish Cypriot concerns ranging from security to the political equality they would enjoy with the majority Greek Cypriots.
“We would encourage him (Denktash) to read the plan again,” a Western diplomat said.
Annan has privately warned that his involvement will wane if the Cypriots do not seize the opportunity at hand.
“The UN has made it clear that if the likelihood of a deal is reduced, it would reconsider the very significant resources that are now being directed to this,” a source close to consultations said. The east Mediterranean island has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.
Ethnic Greeks and Turks live separately, divided by a “Green Line” monitored by UN troops.
Both sides have made it clear they are not happy with the draft as it stands and have played down chances of a quick deal.
“Mr. Annan will see tomorrow the impossibility of any immediate signing,” a Greek government spokesman quoted Prime Minister Costas Simitis as saying.
While diplomats debated the merits of Annan’s plan, the people of the divided island were also making their views heard .
A sea of blue balloons representing the EU flag covered the demonstrators who urged Annan to continue pressing the sides to reach an agreement.
“Save us, Mr. Annan,” read one banner. “Dear Annan, we want to live as human beings,” another said. Police estimated that 70,000 people were at the rally. Several trade unions, including two civil servant unions, called a general strike Thursday in support of the Annan plan.
Earlier Thursday, police defused two bombs planted in the main square where the demonstrators were to gather. The area was reopened by midmorning.
“We are here to save our children,” Pembe Hikmetoglu, a 43-year-old cleaner attending the rally. “Our children graduated from universities but they don’t have jobs. We want peace and we want the European Union,” she said.
Greece, Turkey and Britain are guarantor powers of Cyprus under treaties signed in 1959 which gave the former British colony independence a year later.
The agreement proposed by the UN is based on a largely decentralized bi-zonal confederation, with one area inhabited largely by Greek Cypriots and the other by Turkish Cypriots. Agencies

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