Annan completes Cyprus reunification deal

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan handed Greek, Turkish and Cypriot officials his final plan for the reunification of Cyprus, stressing that “the time for decision and action has arrived”.

Mr Annan said he had written a letter to the leaders of the Greek and Cypriot communities on the island and the governments of Greece and Turkey setting out his plans for national referendums on the plan on April 24 – four days later than originally planned.

“The hour is late but the cause is urgent,” Mr Annan told the parties, gathered within minutes of the midnight deadline yesterday for completing four-way talks at the Swiss mountain-top resort of Buergenstock.

“The time for negotiations and consultation is over. The time for decision and action is over,” he said.

The Turkish side was quick to give support to the plan, confirming that it would hold the referendum as planned.

The Greeks and Greek Cypriots had earlier expressed disappointment in the failure to guarantee Turkish troop withdrawal and 100% return of Greek Cypriot refugees to their homes in the northern part of the Mediterranean island.

The Turkish announcement was probably aimed at encouraging Turkish Cypriots to approve the deal, which is widely seen as being favourable to the Turkish side.

Tassos Jonis, an adviser to Greek Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos, said he was surprised by the Turkish announcement.

“Nobody has been asked to sign anything,” he insisted.

Despite the Turkish stance, negotiators failed in their attempts to agree the Cyprus reunification plan and left it to mr Annan to finalise and present to the Cypriot people.

Mr Annan told the gathering that his new plan made major changes to the one produced on Monday, including an improved proposal on returns of property and compensation for refugees, as well as financial and economic measures.

The plan – which is 220 pages long and is accompanied by some 9,000 pages of annexes – envisage separate Greek and Turkish Cypriot states linked by a weak federal government.

A proportion of the Greek Cypriot refugees who fled or were forced from their homes in the north will have the right to go back, while Turkey must drastically reduce – but not withdraw entirely – the number of troops it maintains on the island.

But the plan has been beset by problems, as the Greek side complained that all the Greek Cypriots refugees should be able to go back and that around 80,000 Turkish settlers who moved to the island after the 1974 Turkish invasion should leave.

The Turkish side wanted to further limit the number of Greek Cypriot refugees who could return and wanted to maintain a Turkish military presence in the north of the island.

Mr Chrysostomides told reporters today that the president told Mr Annan that his plan was “unbalanced”.

Cyprus has been split into the Greek Cypriot-controlled south and the occupied north since Turkey invaded in 1974 in the wake of a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. The breakaway state is only recognised by Turkey, which maintains 40,000 troops there.

The Annan plan is the closest that Cyprus has come to reunification.

The UN has been in Cyprus since 1964 and currently maintains more than 1,200 peacekeepers there. Successive secretaries-general have tried to solve the Cyprus problem but have been unable to find a solution that satisfied both communities.

But today’s move is only the beginning of work for Mr Annan, who now has to persuade the people of Cyprus that his proposals are the best they can get and that they should vote in favour of the plan even if it is not supported by the government.

The latest changes to Mr Annan’s plan seem to have met many of the Turkish demands. They know that reunification will bring them EU membership and a boost to their economy. The Turkish government seems to be generally in favour of the plan and could sway the votes of settlers from the Turkish mainland who represent almost half the population.

Mr Annan will probably face the bigger problem in convincing the Greek Cypriot majority.

They know that – whatever the outcome of the vote – they will join the European Union on May 1 and get all the benefits that entails. Their standard of living is five times that of the Turkish Cypriots, and reunification would require them to pour money into the impoverished north.

Yet the Greek Cypriots have deep emotional reasons for wanting to see their island reunited and some 180,000 people are waiting for the chance to return to their homes in the north. Mr Annan will have to wait to see whether that will be enough to sway the referendum.