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3/13/06

Cyprus-Mail: ‘Greek Cypriots have lost the moral high ground’

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‘Greek Cypriots have lost the moral high ground’

THE International Crisis Group (ICG) report on Cyprus sends a clear message to President Tassos Papadopoulos and the Greek Cypriot side that they have lost the moral high ground on the Cyprus issue. “The Greek Cypriots are now regarded as the intransigent side and can no longer rely on international sympathy for the events of 1974,” said the 40-page report, which was published on Thursday. And while the report recommends some ways forward for the Turkish side, the main criticism falls on the Cyprus government.

It said that since 1974, the Greek Cypriot public had been persuaded by its governments, its education system and its media of the moral and legal superiority of its cause. “Its elites have fostered a culture of resistance to colonial and neo-colonial influence and an image of the Greek Cypriots as the underdogs who would and should resist external pressures and dictates,” it said. “The political class has rarely argued the need, let alone the desirability, of a genuine compromise power-sharing solution with the Turkish Cypriots. Those leaders who have attempted to do so have been punished electorally. Nobody in the Greek Cypriot establishment had ever described what a realistic federation (to which most political actors paid lip service) would entail.” As a result of this when the public was presented with the Annan plan it was dismayed to see that it did not correspond to their expectations. “Their president now does not seem to have any inclination, or coherent strategy on how, to get unification back on track, and the prospects for achieving it look bleak,” the report added. Central to the government’s current strategy, according to the ICG, is an apparent policy to keep the Turkish Cypriot side isolated on the assumption it would keep them at the negotiating table.

“This argument reflects a negative mindset that has prevailed for decades on all sides of the conflict."

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