Denktash vows to fight reunification of Cyprus after April polls in north
ANKARA (Reuters) – Veteran Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said in comments published yesterday that he would spearhead opposition to any revived efforts to reunite Cyprus after he retires next month. Denktash also said he had decided not to contest an April 17 presidential election in his enclave due to disagreements with Turkey over Cyprus’s future. The enclave’s pro-reunification leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, is tipped to win the election. «We are preparing our office. We will make efforts to form a new civil organization (to fight reunification),» Denktash, 81, told Turkey’s Milliyet daily in an interview. «I could not stay in this post and pursue policies that are not backed by the Turkish government,» he said. Roughly two-thirds of voters in the Turkish-Cypriot north of the island backed a United Nations reunification plan in a referendum last April. The plan was scuppered by the Greek-Cypriot south, which voted overwhelmingly against it. Denktash’s comments drew a sharp reaction from Ankara, which fears the continued division of Cyprus could threaten its hopes of joining the European Union. Turkey hopes to revive the stalled Cyprus peace process after the April 17 poll. «If he is using us as an excuse to withdraw from politics, this saddens me,» Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Ankara, saying his government continued to see Cyprus as a national cause. «(Turkish Cypriots) expressed their own will and made their own decision. They did not ask us.» Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul blamed hard-liners on the Turkish side for the fact the Greek-Cypriot government joined the EU last May, creating a diplomatic headache for the bloc and giving Nicosia the right to veto Turkey’s own EU hopes. «If our government’s policies had been carried out before, the Greek Cypriots would not now be a full member of the EU,» Gul told a news conference in Ankara. Denktash’s opposition to reunification helped ensure the Turkish Cypriots remained isolated for years, while the Greek-Cypriot government, recognized internationally as the legal representative of the whole island, joined the EU. Denktash remains popular in Turkey, especially among nationalists, and he could restrict Ankara’s room for maneuver in future talks on Cyprus. «I am sure (Denktash) will act like a statesman but of course it is his choice if he acts like a politician,» Gul said.
