UN plan to reunite Cyprus stalls

”The UN plan died on this square. This is the referendum,” said politician Dervis Eroglu, a firm backer of Denktash.
The Turkish Cypriot leader says the draft for a deal is a recipe for violence and unacceptable without major revisions.
Denktash said in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday that he would tell UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at a summit with Greek Cypriot leaders in The Hague next week that he could not accept Annan’s invitation to hold a referendum on a peace plan. Annan says he will end peace efforts if the referendum is rejected.
Police said between 30,000 and 40,000 people took part in the pro-Denktash march in the Turkish zone of the divided capital, Nicosia.
Many of Denktash’s opponents said the turnout had been bolstered by officers from the island’s large Turkish military garrison who were ordered to attend the rally in civilian clothes.
In a clear sign of the deep division in the Turkish part of the island, thousands of supporters of the UN plan gathered in Nicosia later yesterday. Scores of riot police blocked the demonstrators’ path from a central Nicosia square to the doors of the nearby Parliament, where lawmakers loyal to Denktash stopped moves to vote on whether to back a referendum.
”I felt like I was in a military barracks today in parliament,” opposition lawmaker Mustafa Akinci said, referring to the tight security.
”The only difference between Parliament and this morning’s rally is that the ones here in Parliament are at least in uniform,” he said.
The anti-Denktash demonstrators left their candles on the steps of Parliament and dispersed, clearly bitter that the motion had failed. A second debate is set for tomorrow.
In January, the biggest anti-Denktash rally drew an estimated 70,000 people, more than a third of the Turkish Cypriot population of 200,000.
The island has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey seized the north of the island after a Greek Cypriot coup that Ankara thought threatened the security of ethnic Turks on the island.
Annan wants Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to agree at a meeting in the Netherlands on Monday to hold referendums on the plan by the end of the month. Although Parliament will meet again tomorrow, Denktash could veto its decision if it elects to hold a referendum.
Opposition figures accused Denktash and his allies of bypassing the democratic process on the orders of Ankara.
”What happened here was disgusting,” said Ali Erel, an campaigner for the United Nations plan. ”It is debatable whether we are sovereign. A decision has to come from somewhere else.”
On Thursday, Denktash and Turkish leaders agreed to a common position against the peace plan at meetings in Ankara, pouring cold water on hopes of an accord. Denktash said at yesterday’s rally that the UN blueprint would create refugees and force many Turkish Cypriots from their homes.