TURKPULSE No:118
CYPRUS
SOLUTION OR DRAMATIC EXPECTATIONS?
TURKPULSE No:118
CYPRUS
SOLUTION OR DRAMATIC EXPECTATIONS?
Admittedly the Cyprus problem in its over four decades of history has never come so close to the solution point as it is today after the Burgenstock talks in Switzerland. The fourth Annan plan announced by the UN Secretary General at the end of these talks on 31 March was accepted by the heads of the two Turkish delegations, PM Tayyip Erdogan and PM Mehmet Ali Talat, and, by and large, taken in the world as a Turkish victory. The Greek reception of the plan was a refusal to sign it and , to say the least, sulking pending the 24 April referenda on both sides of the island. The Greeks are not the only ones that sulk. President Denktas and his followers also joined hands with them in a way to confirm the French expression, “Les extremes se touchest”. President Sezer and the Turkish military were slow in expressing their opinion of the outcome. The National Security Council, for the first time in its history, held a second day hearing on Friday (2nd) to devote attention to the Fourth Annan plan and decided to continue with the scrutiny of 9000 pages of documents over the weekend. At the time of drafting this article, the NSC’s Monday sitting had not yet taken place, but there were enough indicators for the motives of this cautious reception. For the details of this exceedingly important occurrence and its consequences please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:119
DENKTAS’S
DESPERATE FIGHT FOR THE WRONG
Given his excellent record of unprecedented service to the Turkish world in Cyprus and elsewhere in his 80 years of lifespan, President Denktas’s current fight for the rejection of the fourth Annan plan at the 24 April referenda on both sides of the island clearly remains inexplicable. Under the conditions, one cannot help asking oneself if there is something he knows that we do not know, but the whole process of the Annan plan is proof in itself that such secrecy is impossible in today’s state of affairs on the Cyprus issue and insiders confirm it. Yet the public debates on the Annan plan in Parliament in Ankara has shed confusing light into the whole issue. For the details of this intriguing story and the expectations of Pulse for the outcome of the forthcoming referenda please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:120TIME FOR
REALISM AND SOLUTION IN CYPRUS
With the decisive rebuff of the Greek Cypriots at the 24 April referenda on the Annan plan, the hope of having a fair and lasting solution to the four-decade old Cyprus crisis within that plan has been dashed for good. The reason is clearly a lack of realism in laying the foundations of this building by the drafters of this plan, i.e. the Anglo-Americans. For what is this “lack of realism” and the remedy for it please read the article below.