Tassos fighting back

A poll by research and consultancy firm Metron Analysis published yesterday showed that the the new government enjoys a 59.1 per cent support among the population compared with 53.3 per cent for the opposition.The solution of a united Cyprus with the joint leadership of the two communities is preferred by Cyprus society, with 65.4 per cent of those asked in favour and 28 per cent preferring a two-state solution.The view that Demetris Christofias was the last chance for a solution to the Cyprus problem was supported by 53.4 per cent. Christofias topped the popularity polls, coming first with 87.6 per cent, House President Marios Garoyian came second with 62.2 per cent and Disy leader Anastassiades followed with 56.8 per cent.

Akel deputy Nicos Katsourides, commenting on the support for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem among the population, said this was worrying, but added that in last year’s polls, this percentage was higher. “We need to fight this wrong impression, which some of our fellow Cypriots have that the two-state solution is a viable solution,” said Katsourides.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat has said that political equality of the two sides is crucial for the Turkish Cypriots in a new partnership state to be formed in Cyprus. In an exclusive interview with Euronews, Talat explained that it was not numerical equality, but the effective participation in the decision making process which the Turkish Cypriot side is demanding. Asked what were the main obstacles to a political settlement, he said the church and Tassos Papadopoulos whose party is still a coalition partner. “The problem with the Greek Cypriot side is the rejectionist forces”, he said.

Touching upon the property issue, he said there were three options under which it could be solved - compensation, exchange or restitution, all of which would be included in the provisions of any future agreement.

On the presence of Turkish troops on the island, he said that 650 Turkish and 950 Greek soldiers will remain on the island according to the 1960 treaties of guarantee and alliance. “The problem is this: If you go on the streets and ask Turkish Cypriots whether they want Turkish troops to stay or not, 95% of them will approve their presence. Why? Because of mistrust, so the presence of Turkish troops is very crucial and very important for Turkish Cypriots, even if this is a symbolic number”, he added.

Former President Tassos Papadopooulos in an interview in Phileleftheros says he disagrees with the term “joint statement” and says it is more “a political agreement” which reflects the compromise that was made on 23 May. He says, moreover, that Christofias should take steps to correct the omitments that were made. He said Talat got what he wanted through ther term “partnership” and accepted the terms “bizonal, bicommunal federation”. He also said he did not believe that the Turkish side would at a future meeting accept a single sovereignty and citizenship and would ask for concessions contained in the Annan plan. He says he sees hard times ahead if direct talks begin despite insufficient progress in the working groups because that will lead to deadlock and our side getting the blame. He also says Christofias is wrong, the 1960 agreements did not provide for a partnership of states.

Makarios Drousiotis writing in Politis says Tassos is organising a political front in order to undermine the efforts towards a solution of the Cyprus problem. According to reliable sources, he says, the government believes that Tassos’ main aim is to block Christofias and lead his policy on the Cyprus problem to failure in order to prove that his own policy on Cyprus was right and irrespective of the outcome this will have for the country. He says the outcry over the joint statement between Christofias and Talat was the result of a plot hatched by Tassos who wants to put a halt to developments before they can reach direct talks. He has already expressed himself publicly calling it a “step backwards” and has given an interview to a friendly paper published today. Having got over the shock of losing the elections, he is now trying to regain control of developments by accusing Christofias of being conciliatory cultivating fear the same way he did in 2004. His arsenal consists of the return of the Annan bogeyman and the conspiracy theory of foreigners to abolish the Republic of Cyprus. His close circle is already cultivating an unfavourable image of Christofias as being a foreign agent especially of the British. A recent article published in Phileleftheros by G. Eliades, a close friend of Tassos’, compares Christofias to Gorbachev saying that just like he was an agent of the West who wanted to destroy the Soviet Union, so Christofias is an agent of the West who will destroy the Cyprus Republic! In the same vein Archbishop Chrysostomos said over the radio that Christofias is naïve and lacked the legal know-how and was tricked into the joint statement. Basically Tassos is waging a three-pronged campaign a) to control Diko where an intense internal battle is already being fought (recently a non paper criticising Christofias’ handlings was submitted by a party member that had Tassos’ fingerprints all over it) b) to increase his contacts with Edek which is counting on the talks failing in order for them to survive politically, what with EU elections coming up and c) to weaken Anastasiades by breaking up Disy. He has already established good relations with the Archbishop and has approached Kasoulides.The daily paper Machi completely supports him while the attempt to take over Mega TV channel by Lillikas-Nikolas failed at the last minute when the Greek parent company rejected their offer.

The Sunday Mail’s satirical column Coffeeshop says failed presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides managed to get back in the news this week by voicing his disagreement with the DISY Fuhrer’s evaluation of the Talat-Christofias agreement as “a step forward”. The mega-ambitious Ioannis, who has not given up his plans to become presidente, is obviously trying to carve out a new political position from which he can mount another challenge for the top post in the future. And failing that, he could always make a challenge for the DISY leadership, hoping that the more hard-line members would back him. Assisting Kas’ metamorphosis into moderate, hardliner is our old friend the Antenna boss Loukis P who has taken the MEP under his wing, presumably on the condition that he embraced the media magnate’s patriotic stance on the Cyprob. On Friday night Antenna was scheduled to broadcast an interview with Kas, but unfortunately I cannot report anything he said, because I found going to bed a much more appealing option. Just a word of advice for Kas – if Loukis P has promised to make you the next presidente, start running. Were the adulatory words Kas wrote for the memorial service of Nicos Sampson last weekend part of the effort to promote his new, hard-line, political persona, was it a genuine expression of his admiration for the man or was he just repeating what Loukis P told him to say? Who would have thought that a man seeking to become presidente was a fan of the guy sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in the overthrow of the elected presidente. Meanwhile, the column says, Sampson’s family has is suing journalist Makarios Droushiotis for claiming that Sampson was responsible for the murder of a British tourist in 1961. Funnily enough, the allegation was contained in a book that was published while Sampson was still alive but he did not sue. In a country where people go to court for the craziest things, a law-suit for libelling a dead man with a criminal record is perfectly possible. Comrade presidente really confused his comrades on the AKEL central committee when he briefed them about his meeting with Talat and the lack of progress being made at the technical committees and working groups. Christofias painted a very dark picture, informing his comrades that Talat had been totally intransigent at the meeting. Apparently he told his former comrade, that the Turkish Cypriots now had their own ‘state’, which had secured a large degree of recognition and there was no intention of giving it up for the sake of settlement. Not all Central Committee members believed the presidente’s take on the meeting, some of them wondering whether he was preparing the ground to do a Tassos at some point in the future. Nobody knows what Talat told Christofias 10 days ago, but why was the presidente saying one thing to his comrades and another to his subjects?Finally he says the contaminated milk that all the papers have been ranting and raving about in the last couple of days, was the result of our cows eating contaminated feed. No prizes for guessing which newspaper reported that the contaminated fodder “possibly was brought in illegally from the occupied territories”. Simerini, of course, always gets its facts right.