LEFKOSA - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas said on Thursday that Cyprus issue was at a critical phase.
Prior to his departure for Turkey, Denktas told reporters that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's 9 thousand page plan on Cyprus that Turkish Cypriots could not accept was put in front of the people to say 'yes' to it and noted that there was a big external pressure on people to approve the plan.
Denktas said he hoped that people would take a decision by taking into account everything till the referendum and noted, ''people should not cast their votes on the plan by listening he or she and even me. They should cast their votes by taking into consideration where he/she will cast vote with which aim and what will be result of it.''
Stating that he was not one of those who believed that Cyprus was an obstacle on Turkey's path to European Union (EU), Denktas said that those who put Cyprus as an obstacle on Turkey's path to the EU did not want Turkey to join the Union.
Denktas stressed that Cyprus was the most rightful and the strongest cause of Turkey and stated that some people tried to weaken Turkey in its rightful cause. Noting that Cyprus issue should be put as an obstacle in front of Greek Cypriots, Denktas said that the side which did not want to solve the issue became clear.
Whatever agreement had been made on Cyprus so far was made with his initiative, Denktas said.
TRNC President Denktas said that those who said that the Annan plan should be approved when it was first submitted to sides said the same thing when the fifth plan was submitted to sides and noted that he said the same thing when the first plan came out and the fifth plan was submitted to sides. ''I said that it should be better, it has many shortcomings.''
Denktas said that the view that if Greek Cypriot side voted 'no' to the plan and Turkish Cypriot side voted 'yes' to the plan, Turkish Cypriot side would have benefits was very wrong. ''No matter what Greek Cypriot side votes, it will join the EU. It wants to bring whole Cyprus to the EU. We should vote against the plan to show that Greek Cypriots cannot do it,'' he stated.
If Turkish Cypriots said 'yes' to the plan, they would announce that they gave up sovereignty and state, he stressed.
Denktas said that TRNC people should think of it very carefully and noted that EU carrot had a cost. ''We can join the EU with patience. We should back our state and sovereignty,'' he noted.
President Denktas said that he did not take responsibility to sign the referendum law and gave TRNC Parliament Speaker Fatma Ekenoglu authority to sign it.
(EÖ-AY) 15.04.2004