Cyprus-Forum.com

[brother]

No smart arse this is bigger than turkey, this is the bridge of civilisations between christian and muslim.

You might think the world revolves around you and cyprus but actually in reality its a lot bigger than that.

[Piratis]

Maybe EU will choose another bridge, Morocco for example. Or you think the world revolves around Turkey?

[Bananiot]

Anyway, I hope for the sake of all of us Turkey becomes a european country. Let us not be small minded on this. I detect so much wishful thinking in what Piratis writes. He seems hell bent on denying Turkey the opportunity and when Papadopoulos chickens out he is quick to take a recourse on the scepticism of other european countries, spearheaded by Austria. All Cypriots who look ahead into the future cannot but honestly hope Turkey completes succesfully the negotiations and becomes a full member of the exclussive club.

[insan]

Maybe EU will choose another bridge, Morocco for example. Or you think the world revolves around Turkey?

Currently the world revolves around in our region and middle east... Instead of trying to kick each other out of the game, it would be better to come togteher and participate on the project of the regional alliances of the western world... It seems to me that most of the GCs aren't aware of this yet or they are trying to kick the Turks out of the game of the region(East Mediterrenean and Middle East, even through far east). They most probably dream of grabing the share of the TCs and Turks as well.

[erolz]

Maybe EU will choose another bridge, Morocco for example. Or you think the world revolves around Turkey?

If you think they have problems with extending the European Union to an muslim country whose bulk is geogrpahicaly in asia, then a muslim country in _africa_ would send 'them' screaming into the streets

But who knows. Morocco in the EU. I kinda like the idea myself. And Algeria, Egypt. Maybe a European Congo could stop some of the horrors going on there right now. Yep , you have won me over on this one. Let's get all of Africa into the EU. Gets my vote

[-mikkie2-]

Glad to see that this thread has promoted some discussion!

The reason I said 'as is' is because the Americans were suggesting that the plan is on the table 'as is'. From this I took it to mean that the plan would be offerred to referendum again 'as is'.

As this discussion has showed, there is no way that it can be presented again in this form.

[Alexandros Lordos]

mikkie2,

from what I have been hearing in the newspapers recently, the intention of the Americans is not to bring back the Annan Plan as it is ... what they are planning is to "allow" (as if it is their call to make ...) changes in Security, Guarantees, Settlers and the Economy but nothing else.

What they are trying to get is a repetition of last year's methodology, with Kofi Anan having the right to make his own changes if no agreement between the two sides is reached. For marketing purposes, they will bring in another special representative in the place of De Soto, who apparently is not very popular with Cypriots anymore. (I read yesterday that Wlosovich, who is head of UNFICYP, has been promoted to special representative)

Oh, and they will try to avoid calling it "Annan 6" ...

[brother]

At this rate we will be at annan 26 before it makes everyone happy.

[-mikkie2-]

I have been keeping up with the news and it seems that AKEL has changed its views regarding the changes it wishes to see. The Americans have taken the stance that AKEL had during the referendum. Well times have moved. Cyprus is now a full EU member, therefore much of this plan will need to be renegotiated.

The Americans do not seem to want to learn. They must know that offering the Annan Plan with cosmetic changes will simply lead to another negative result. Cypriots are not the uneducated mass they were 30 or 40 years ago. They are dealing with people that are better educated and are more aware of events and how they would affect them.

In any case, I still believe that the Turks are now firmly on the back foot. The Greek Cypriots will not be inclined to enter into negotiations until such time as Turkey fundamentally changes her stance. It goes without saying that Papadopoulos has come out of the EU Summit with a more responsible attitude which seems to have put Cyprus in a more positive light, compared to the way Erdogan conducted himself which was agresssive and unyielding - not the sort of thing the EU looks kindly on.

In any case, the next few months will certainly be interesting.

[Bananiot]

I do not agree with your conclusions mikkie. Ertogan is the big winner since he got everything without giving anything as far as Cyprus is concerned. Our government were hoping (and that was all) for a kind of semi recognition, through customs union. Well, we didn't even get that and it is stretching the line a lot to say that Turkey is on the wall, or something to that effect. I believe Ertogan was given promises, by those that matter, that a new initiative will be starting soon to solve the Cyprus issue and if this fails once again then it will be partition and two states. Already, Ertogan has taken the initiative while our government is hibernating and if we do not wake up real soon then goodbye solution. The Americans are not stupid. I detect an attempt to underestimate them. Hopefully our government will not be so foolish as to underestimate the only superpower, thinking that the veto right makes us a strong player.