DIKO votes to stay in government

DIKO’s Executive Bureau last night voted by a majority to remain in the government coalition, a decision that will be put for ratification before the party’s central committee on Tuesday, the Cyprus Mail reports.

A heated debate began at 10.30am and continued for nine hours, ending with a vote on whether DIKO should stay in government with AKEL. Eighteen members voted for and eight against while four abstained.

“DIKO does not diverge from its positions on the Cyprus problem, disagreements with the president remain. We have decided to remain in the partnership to contribute to the country. If things are not going well we will re-evaluate our position,” party spokesman Fotiou said.

Party leader Marios Garoyian began the session by reading out a letter written by Christofias regarding the future of the government partnership. He then proceeded to argue in favour of DIKO staying in government.

CyBC, last night reported that Christofias’ letter aimed to address the main concerns of the hard-line element within the party that was pushing to abandon government.

The most vocal party officials, including deputy leader Georgios Colocassides, vice-president Nicolas Papadopoulos and general secretary Kyriacos Kenevezos, have been calling for DIKO to walk out unless the president retracts contentious proposals from the negotiating table. The biggest concerns remain the rotating presidency in a federal government, weighted voting and the right of 50,000 Turkish settlers to remain on the island.

Earlier in the week, Garoyian and Christofias met twice in an effort to reach some sort of understanding on government policy towards the Cyprus problem which would help placate the more restless elements within the party.

The result was a letter to DIKO written by Christofias which reportedly highlights that the negotiations are an open process, giving the president, as chief negotiator, the ability to amend positions, add to them or replace them at any moment.

According to CyBC, Christofias also refers to the principles of a solution, as set out by the National Council last September, and to the letter he sent DIKO between the first and second week of the 2008 presidential elections.

The Cyprus Mail’s satirical columnist Coffeeshop says he was praying for DIKO to decide to stay in the government tent, for the good of the country. Prayers do not always work, especially when the Archbishop is praying for the other side in what has become a struggle for the soul of the historic party founded by the great Spy Kyp. In one camp we have the hard-line opportunists, represented by party leader and personality of the year Marios Garoyian who has been valiantly upholding the party’s proud traditions and values, bequeathed by his mentor Spy. In the other camp are the narcissistic, hard-line lawyers who see themselves as the keepers of the late Ethnarch’s proud legacy of negativity and have been agitating for an acrimonious divorce from the government. This legal tendency is represented by Junior, Colocassides, Angelides and Associates, and has the full backing of two TV bosses – the Archbishop and Loukis P.

It goes without saying that Spy’s son and heir, foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou, is in the Garoyian camp and wants to maintain the alliance because he is very fond of foreign travel. And he has a bigger claim to the party than Junior who, like his father, never embraced the traditional values and ideals of DIKO - horse-trading, rusfeti and total focus on the spoils of power.

Has it not occurred to the smart, idealistic lawyers who put their patriotic principles above everything else that they might be in the wrong party? If they want to belong to a party that sacrifices power for nebulous principles they should join EDEK instead of arrogantly trying to impose an alien ideology on their hard-line opportunist comrades.

If all goes well and DIKO votes to stay in the tent for now, the comrade will have to start planning his next moves for keeping the alliance going. His safest bet would be to help the dour Dervis Eroglu get elected pseudo-president as he would ensure the talks grind to a halt. With prospects of a settlement hitting zero, the comrade’s concessions would be irrelevant and DIKO would stay in the alliance and help the comrade get re-elected. EDEK might even return when the threat of a settlement ceases to exist. All that remains now is for the comrade’s poodles to find out how to send money to the Eroglu election campaign fund. They should ask the Archbishop, who is a big admirer of dull Dervis and may have already contributed to his election kitty.

Makarios Droushiotis writing in Politis says that although talks between Christofias and Talat are restarting on Wednesday they are doing so without an agenda or programme. The Greek Cypriot side wants to talk about the economy while Talat wants to finish the chapter on government and power sharing. Meanwhile the UN wants there to be intensive talks leading up to the announcement of broad convergences to help Talat in the elections in April. Talat wants this as well, but Christofias told the National Council he would not be getting into intensive talks. The writer says the picture that Christofias gives regarding progress at the talks is confused and depends on who he is talking to. Recently, speaking to a bicommunal delegation he was positive and painted a picture of the glass being half full, while one week earlier at the National Council he painted a dull picture of a glass half empty and heading to failure.

Three weeks have already gone by since UN S-G Ban Ki-Moon’s visit to the island and the talks have ground to a standstill. Prospects for the four forthcoming meetings are dim. No preparatory work has been done whatsoever. It’s difficult to see how in four meetings any results can be achieved.

Clearly Talat feels the urgency for more meetings and tangible results as the only way he can win the elections. Yet Christofias has said Talat’s reelection is not his responsibility. This attitude has been interpreted by the other side as an indirect wish for Eroglu to win, so he can get out of the talks with the other side taking the blame.

On the other hand the G/C side believes that whether Talat gets reelected or not it is all a test of Turkey ie if Turkey truly wants a solution it will find a way to help Talat and will not let the opportunity go to waste. What’s worse, the domestic situation in Turkey is becoming more and more difficult. Western diplomats warn that things could get out of control and the opportunity of a steady government in Turkey, combined with a moderate Turkish Cypriot leadership offering the prospect of a solution could be lost.