LEFKOSA - President Rauf Denktas of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has said that they had presented a comprehensive document on derogations to the Greek Cypriot side, but the Greek Cypriot side insisted that ''Turkish Cypriots would not have permanent derogations''.
Speaking to reporters, Denktas said that they had told Papadopoulos that ''they wanted to see a written document of revisions he wanted to make by referring to the relevant article of Annan's plan''. Denktas added, ''if he gives us such a written document, then we can try to reach a point by adding our opinions as an opposite revision if necessary.''
Noting that the issue had been postponed to Wednesday due to this reason, Denktas said, ''what we see is that they have a tendency to emphasize on being Cypriot. If we say a Turkish Cypriot is appointed to this post and a Greek Cypriot to this post, they say, 'no, a Cypriot is appointed'. They want to avoid discrimination of language, religion and culture. You know where this leads us to.''
Stressing that Annan's plan said that 24 senators from each founder state would be appointed and Turkish side read it as 24 Turkish Cypriot and 24 Greek Cypriot senators, Denktas said this was the spirit of the 1960 agreements which were still in effect.
''Thus, by granting political rights to Greek Cypriots whom they will send to Turkish Cypriot side, they are trying to turn this '24 Turkish Cypriots' into '16 Turkish-8 Greek Cypriots' or '16 Turkish-6 Greek Cypriots'. And they seemed very determined on this trick. We are also determined. This thing will not work that way,'' he said.
Noting that they had given a comprehensive document on derogations, Denktas said that Annan's plan included references to the issue and opinions on how the EU could protect those derogations. Denktas said that they had explained how this issue would materialize legally to Greek Cypriot side in detail.
Stressing that Greek Cypriots opposed also to it, Denktas said that the Greek Cypriot side had said that ''Cyprus has joined the EU. So you can't have permanent derogations, but there can be temporary derogations. However, these can be taken up at the human rights court. And it is impossible to prevent these.'' Denktas said that thus, they couldn't get to any point also in this issue.
Stating that they had asked about the money spent by Greek Cypriots on missiles and whether their call for the European Parliament had contradicted with the ongoing talks, Denktas said, ''and the atmosphere tensed a little. Papadopoulos said a word like 'how can you say it while there are twenty five-thirty thousand Turkish soldiers in your side?' He meant to say that armament was their right. When we insisted on whether it was correct or wrong, he said that he would not talk these issues here and he left without shaking hands. The meeting was over and he was the person who left to room first.''
''Consequently, the result we got today is that we have started to focus on the essence, but we did not find a way out. Talks will continue at 10 o'clock in the morning tomorrow,'' Denktas added.
(MS-AÖ) 24.02.2004