Tweet
Agence France Presse -- English
May 19, 2006 Friday 3:10 AM GMT
Cyprus division looms over parliament vote
NICOSIA, May 19 2006
The decades-long division of Cyprus weighs heavy on voters' minds
ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election, but residents on both sides
of the island envision very different solutions to the partition.
"I want a good solution: Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots all
living together in one country," said Andreas Michael, a retired
Greek Cypriot.
The best way to do that, he said, is to vote for the DIKO party of
President Tassos Papadopoulos, who has made Greek Cypriots' rejection
of a UN-backed reunification plan in 2004 a point of pride in this
year's campaign.
DIKO is enjoying a surge of popularity as the government-controlled
south goes to the polls for the first time since becoming an EU
member following an overwhelming "no" vote by Greek Cypriots to the
so-called Annan plan.
Supporting the "no" to reunification and yet wanting a solution to
the Mediterranean island's divide is not a contradiction to Andry, a
40-year-old Greek Cypriot lawyer.
"I was against the Annan plan and for one Cyprus, to live all
together Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, but not under Turkish
occupation," said Andry, citing the Cyprus divide as her key concern
at the ballot box.
To her, the UN blueprint was too vague on removal of the Turkish
military, which maintains around 30,000 troops patrolling the
northern third of the island where she grew up.
She also said she believes the rise in support for Papadopoulos's
party will send a message to Europe that Cypriots want a better, more
equitable reunification plan.
But on the other side of the barbed wire-laced dividing line in the
breakaway republic recognized only by Ankara, the parliamentary
campaigning and especially the widespread rallying around
Papadopoulos sparks dismay among Turkish Cypriots.
"There is so much popular support for the president," said Ahmet
Sozen, a Turkish Cypriot who heads the Cyprus Policy Center
think-tank at the Eastern Mediterranean University. "It's scary."
Sozen said most Turkish Cypriots "would prefer a party that is closer
to the Annan plan."
Turkish Cypriots living in the north in territory viewed by the Greek
Cypriot authorities as land under illegal Turkish occupation are
unable to vote in the election on May 21.
Some changes have been made in this year's election, signalling small
steps toward rapprochement.
The minority of Turkish Cypriots who live in the south have been
awarded the right to run and vote for the first time since 1963.
Around 270 Turkish Cypriots have registered to vote and one Turkish
Cypriot candidate, poet Neshe Yashin, is running on a small
pro-reunification party list.
But according to Greek Cypriot sociologist Nicos Peristianis from
Cyprus's Intercollege, "realistically speaking, (Yashin's candidacy)
it is not very significant" and will not change "how politics are
carried out on this side."
"The way people vote has to do with long term blocs of alignment that
people identify with and they very seldom walk away from these
identities," he said.
Indeed, the major players have hardly changed, with polls indicating
only a slightly more rejectionist tilt to this year's poll, the first
since 2001.
While Papadopoulos's party is expected to gain three seats to give it
12, the left-wing AKEL party which opposed the Annan plan is still
the leader with 20 projected seats in the 56-member parliament.
The right-wing DISY which controversially supported the UN blueprint
is close behind with its projected 19 seats or 28 percent support,
down from its 34 percent tally in the last election, according to
state television polls.
"Turkish Cypriots are interested in the Greek Cypriot election,
unfortunately according to our survey... they believe all parties are
basically the same and they are not happy about that," said Turkish
Cypriot Muharrem Faiz, director of the Cyprus Social and Economic
Research Center.
Faiz said Turkish Cypriots have indicated in polls conducted by his
center that they are ready for certain steps, such as changing street
signs to read in Greek as well as Turkish, sharing common investments
and having Greek Cypriot neighbors.
Now, they would like to see some "concrete projects from the Greek
Cypriot side," he said.
But no new plan is on the negotiating table, and proposed new talks
between leaders of the two sides have hit snag after snag without
getting off the ground.
Meanwhile, some say those living in the so-called Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus -- established about a decade after Turkish troops
invaded in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at
uniting the island with Greece -- are falling further and further
behind.
In particular, it is the distant prospect of EU membership that
conjures pangs of regret for Gulbenk Terziyan, who owns a picture
frame shop wedged along one of the capital's dusty side streets that
gets little walk-by traffic.
"We are left out. We are unhappy because of that," said Terziyan, an
Armenian Turk who is married to a Turkish Cypriot and who, like most
in the north, voted "yes" to the Annan plan.
"I am 55 years old and I have seen too many elections," he said. "We
believe nothing will change."
May 19, 2006 Friday 3:10 AM GMT
Cyprus division looms over parliament vote
NICOSIA, May 19 2006
The decades-long division of Cyprus weighs heavy on voters' minds
ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election, but residents on both sides
of the island envision very different solutions to the partition.
"I want a good solution: Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots all
living together in one country," said Andreas Michael, a retired
Greek Cypriot.
The best way to do that, he said, is to vote for the DIKO party of
President Tassos Papadopoulos, who has made Greek Cypriots' rejection
of a UN-backed reunification plan in 2004 a point of pride in this
year's campaign.
DIKO is enjoying a surge of popularity as the government-controlled
south goes to the polls for the first time since becoming an EU
member following an overwhelming "no" vote by Greek Cypriots to the
so-called Annan plan.
Supporting the "no" to reunification and yet wanting a solution to
the Mediterranean island's divide is not a contradiction to Andry, a
40-year-old Greek Cypriot lawyer.
"I was against the Annan plan and for one Cyprus, to live all
together Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, but not under Turkish
occupation," said Andry, citing the Cyprus divide as her key concern
at the ballot box.
To her, the UN blueprint was too vague on removal of the Turkish
military, which maintains around 30,000 troops patrolling the
northern third of the island where she grew up.
She also said she believes the rise in support for Papadopoulos's
party will send a message to Europe that Cypriots want a better, more
equitable reunification plan.
But on the other side of the barbed wire-laced dividing line in the
breakaway republic recognized only by Ankara, the parliamentary
campaigning and especially the widespread rallying around
Papadopoulos sparks dismay among Turkish Cypriots.
"There is so much popular support for the president," said Ahmet
Sozen, a Turkish Cypriot who heads the Cyprus Policy Center
think-tank at the Eastern Mediterranean University. "It's scary."
Sozen said most Turkish Cypriots "would prefer a party that is closer
to the Annan plan."
Turkish Cypriots living in the north in territory viewed by the Greek
Cypriot authorities as land under illegal Turkish occupation are
unable to vote in the election on May 21.
Some changes have been made in this year's election, signalling small
steps toward rapprochement.
The minority of Turkish Cypriots who live in the south have been
awarded the right to run and vote for the first time since 1963.
Around 270 Turkish Cypriots have registered to vote and one Turkish
Cypriot candidate, poet Neshe Yashin, is running on a small
pro-reunification party list.
But according to Greek Cypriot sociologist Nicos Peristianis from
Cyprus's Intercollege, "realistically speaking, (Yashin's candidacy)
it is not very significant" and will not change "how politics are
carried out on this side."
"The way people vote has to do with long term blocs of alignment that
people identify with and they very seldom walk away from these
identities," he said.
Indeed, the major players have hardly changed, with polls indicating
only a slightly more rejectionist tilt to this year's poll, the first
since 2001.
While Papadopoulos's party is expected to gain three seats to give it
12, the left-wing AKEL party which opposed the Annan plan is still
the leader with 20 projected seats in the 56-member parliament.
The right-wing DISY which controversially supported the UN blueprint
is close behind with its projected 19 seats or 28 percent support,
down from its 34 percent tally in the last election, according to
state television polls.
"Turkish Cypriots are interested in the Greek Cypriot election,
unfortunately according to our survey... they believe all parties are
basically the same and they are not happy about that," said Turkish
Cypriot Muharrem Faiz, director of the Cyprus Social and Economic
Research Center.
Faiz said Turkish Cypriots have indicated in polls conducted by his
center that they are ready for certain steps, such as changing street
signs to read in Greek as well as Turkish, sharing common investments
and having Greek Cypriot neighbors.
Now, they would like to see some "concrete projects from the Greek
Cypriot side," he said.
But no new plan is on the negotiating table, and proposed new talks
between leaders of the two sides have hit snag after snag without
getting off the ground.
Meanwhile, some say those living in the so-called Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus -- established about a decade after Turkish troops
invaded in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at
uniting the island with Greece -- are falling further and further
behind.
In particular, it is the distant prospect of EU membership that
conjures pangs of regret for Gulbenk Terziyan, who owns a picture
frame shop wedged along one of the capital's dusty side streets that
gets little walk-by traffic.
"We are left out. We are unhappy because of that," said Terziyan, an
Armenian Turk who is married to a Turkish Cypriot and who, like most
in the north, voted "yes" to the Annan plan.
"I am 55 years old and I have seen too many elections," he said. "We
believe nothing will change."