2 weeks Ago
Αll anti-settlement parties issued announcements celebrating Thursday’s 21st anniversary of the Greek Cypriot ‘no’ vote in the Annan Plan referendum. Diko, whose leader, president Tassos Papadopoulos, urged people to reject the plan, said that Cypriot Hellenism, “in a moment of heightened political responsibility, took a historic decision,” and “salvaged the Cyprus Republic.” The salvaging of the Cyprus Republic was mentioned by all these parties in their statements because it is the only thing that they can present as an achievement of the ‘no’ vote.
The Annan Plan would not have dissolved or abolished the Cyprus Republic as opponents of a settlement claimed but it would have stopped it being an exclusively Greek Cypriot state as it envisaged power sharing by the two communities. It was this Cyprus Republic that would have become an EU member a week later, but the Greek Cypriots would have lost the total control of the State they had enjoyed for 40 years. What nobody asks, 21 years later, is whether keeping the Cyprus Republic in Greek Cypriot hands was worth surrendering 40 per cent of its territory to Turkey for good, seeing it becoming a part of Turkey, in character and custom, and the home of a steadily growing population of Turkish nationals (the number of which was much smaller in 2004).
Worse still, the Republic will have to administer an 180km border with Turkey because Unficyp will not stay here forever guarding the buffer zone. With the ’no’ vote, the Greek Cypriots voted for partition, although they refused to see it this way. At the time, opponents of the plan maintained the Greek Cypriots would secure an improved deal as a member of the EU – a European solution – but if they were not being dishonest, they were being extremely naïve.
The ‘no’ vote was a vote for partition even though it was never set out as such by the anti-settlement camp, which presented its stance as heroically defiant and patriotic. To be fair, referendums all over the world are decided by emotions rather than by rational arguments – voting is determined mostly by emotion – and this was the case in Cyprus. Nobody considered the most compelling argument for a ‘yes’ vote.
All of Cyprus would have become European Union territory and European acquis would have applied to all the island which would have been under the authority and protection of Brussels. What better guarantee could there have been for the island’s long-term security? Not only would it have ruled out partition, but it would also have ensured the end of Turkey’s oppressive domination of the Turkish Cypriots who, as European citizens would have enjoyed the protection of the EU. Instead, the overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots voted for the occupied area to become a part of Turkey rather than of the EU.
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