The settlers become an issue

Speaking to reporters on Friday following comments by Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat that the status of the settlers from the Turkish mainland living in the north is not negotiable, Christofias said if Talat wanted to raise issues that were in the Annan plan then it was his right to do so “but we have our own positions and views” and has plans to put them forward.Asked if he would be raising the issue of the settlers during his forthcoming direct negotiations with Talat or if it was an issue to be discussed by the technical committees, the president said: “We would like a committee to be created not only to deal with the issue of the settlers but also with that of illegal immigration and citizenship and other issues which, in our view, should first be discussed by the committees.”

Loucas Charalambous writing in Politis says that a strange paranoia has broken out amongst our politicians around the Annan plan, which makes one wonder whether they genuinely want a solution or are hell bent on continuing Papadopoulos’ partitionist policy. Both President Christofias and some of his advisors as well as the rejectionist camp (Diko, Edek, Evroko, Archbishop, mass media) have embarked on a stupid competition to see who is the greatest advocate against the (already dead) Annan plan. What surprises me, the writer says, is why the Turkish side is still insisting on the Annan plan. If I were in their shoes I’d say, right, so you don’t want the Annan plan which gave you Famagusta, Morphou, the buffer zone, and 45 villages? Forget it then. Let’s start from scratch. The facts on the ground have changed. It’s 60% - 40% now. As for the troops, the plan left 6,000 in 2011, 3,000 in 2018 and 650 after 2018. Instead let’s start withdrawing in 15 years time. As for the settlers, the plan left 40,000 here, now we say it’s inhuman for a single one to leave and that all 300,000 currently here should remain. Then we’ll see who will lose out. That’s what I would do if I were Talat.

Simerini says that the question of the Turkish settlers will scupper a possible solution of the Cyprus problem. The arrival of the settlers is a war crime and an attempt by Turkey to change the demographic character of the island to its benefit. It is unacceptable for the President to say that some settlers will remain for humanitarian reasons. Even if one were to remain it would be the beginning of the end of Cyprus.

Savvas Iacovides in the same paper says the Turkish occupier and its guardian Talat, have for the umpteenth time stated clearly what they expect – two states, “a virgin birth”, guarantor rights, the permanent stay of the settlers, total control of Cyprus. President Christofias should tell us how he plans to force Turkey to accept a viable solution of the Cyprus problem, as he has been declaring since before being elected that he knows best how to make Turkey kneel.