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Embargoed! Debates Cyprus on Worldview - 28 February 2007

Embargoed!’s Ata Cholak joined Nick Kounoupias, Co-ordinator of Lobby for Cyprus, and Dominic Dyer of the American European Institute to discuss the Cyprus problem on the internet current affairs channel 18DoughtyStreet.com. Worldview presenter Alan Mendoza presided over the lively discussions that focussed on developments since the 2004 Annan Plan referenda, when 65% of Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of the internationally backed federal solution to unite the island, while 76% of Greek Cypriots rejected the plan.

Cholak highlighted the ongoing difficulties for people in North Cyprus, who are still living under international isolation even though they had voted for a solution. Although Cyprus had been admitted as an EU member state in 2004, those in North Cyprus continued to be frozen out. He commented, “Technically they are in the EU – but they are the excluded citizens. They have no voice, they have no representation.”

When asked about why Greek Cypriots had rejected the plan, Kounoupias stated that “180,000 were kicked out of the North [in 1974]” and as they did not all have the right to return, the plan was rejected. For Greek Cypriots, the lure of EU membership and legal action through the ECHR courts promised better outcomes than the compromises required from the Annan Plan.

Dyer stressed that the ongoing division of Cyprus, now an EU member state, was resulting in widespread problems for the EU, with obstacles affecting everything from Turkey’s EU candidacy to NATO-EU sharing of intelligence. He feels there is, “No incentive for GCs to negotiate” and as such, it was difficult to see a way forward.

The programme can be viewed from the following link:
http://doughty.gdbtv.com/player.php?h=86c24b87867131224f071adc839b06d1#



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