Who is the hostage of whom?

By Yusuf Kanli
TDN- It's high time to realize that neither Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos and Greece nor Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktas -- and indeed Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat -- and Turkey can brush off mounting international pressure for a fresh round of diplomacy over the faltering U.N. peace plan for the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
The Dec. 17 decisions as well as the pre-decision discussions of the European Council must be carefully evaluated, and all parties to the Cyprus problem must realize that they have entered a period in which they cannot just simply stay out of a process which, if they don’t volunteer for it, will be imposed on them.
The Greek Cypriot leadership -- hoping that their presence in the EU as a “full-fledged member representing the entire island” will provide them a “shield” that will empower them to maintain their “oxi" (no) policy towards any effort aimed at providing the island with a settlement on the basis of power-sharing -- can’t stay out of this new process.
The Turkish Cypriot leadership, despite all the objections of President Rauf Denktas to fresh talks on the so-called (Kofi) Annan plan, the upcoming Feb. 20 parliamentary polls and the April presidential elections, is not expected to alter its existing pro-settlement orientation.
Prime Minister Talat was on TV Wednesday declaring his readiness for fresh settlement talks provided that the Greek Cypriot side agreed to a resumption of the process.
In Ankara, on the other hand, the government has already made clear its readiness to “go the extra mile” on Cyprus should the Greek Cypriot side agreed to return to talks with the intention of compromising.
Therefore, while Ankara is no longer a hostage to the Cyprus problem nor are the Turkish Cypriots being held hostage to Turkey’s EU aspirations, the EU must prove to the world that it has no intention of becoming a hostage of the antagonistic Greek Cypriot leadership by pushing them hard to become amenable to a settlement.
As we have repeatedly said over the past several months, even though the new round of talks, if ever they resume, will still be under the auspices of the U.N. secretary-general, the Cyprus problem itself has been an internal matter of the EU since Dec. 17.
If Turkey wants to have a place in Europe, it has to do something by the Oct. 3 start of its accession talks, while if the Greek Cypriots want to become a respected member of the club, they should understand that "no settlement" is not a valid policy.