BY FIKRET BILA
MILLIYET- Polarization in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has reached a boiling point in the countdown to this weekend’s elections. The campaigns are revolving around Annan’s plan for the island, and this lies behind the polarization. For example, if the parties supporting TRNC President Rauf Denktas win, the doors will be closed completely but if Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Mehmet Ali Talat wins, Annan’s plan will be signed. Actually, this isn’t the whole truth. If the current TRNC coalition partners can win enough seats to form another government, Denktas won’t burn his bridges with the United Nations, the European Union and the Greek Cypriot administration. Denktas will request proximity talks following the elections and propose a plan to be prepared with Ankara, using Annan’s plan as a starting point. The basis of this plan will consist of two states, two sectors, two nations and two democracies, and an umbrella state to be founded on this basis.
Another necessary condition in Denktas’s plan will be Turkey as guarantor. It would be hard for the current opposition to oppose this framework. Likewise, if Talat forms a government, he won’t sign onto Annan’s plan. It’s impossible for Talat to ignore the Cyprus problem’s national character and accept the requests of the EU and Greek Cypriot administration. Even if there is such an atmosphere in the elections, neither Talat nor any other politician can follow a policy of protecting not Ankara, but Athens and Brussels without guaranteeing the Turkish Cypriots’ security. A policy depicting the Greek Cypriot administration as peacemakers favoring just resolution but Turkey and the TRNC as blameworthy obstructionists will go nowhere. Whoever wins the elections, we shouldn’t forget that Cyprus is a national problem and that polarization here would be a grave mistake.