Denktas says Greek Cypriots reject his proposals

LEFKOSA (Reuters) – Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktas said on Monday Greek Cypriot leaders had rejected all the proposals which he has made since UN-brokered peace talks on reuniting the island resumed on February 19.

"The answer which they (the Greek Cypriots) have given us is that our proposals are all unacceptable, saying they are outside the Annan Plan," Denktas, head of a breakaway state in northern Cyprus recognised only by Ankara, told reporters after fresh talks in Nicosia.

The U.N.’s Annan Plan has been dusted off as the framework for the talks, which resumed on February 19 at a disused airport in the island’s U.N. buffer zone. Negotiations on the plan, named after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, collapsed in March 2003 when Denktas flatly rejected it.

But external pressure has nudged the two sides back to the table. They have been given until March 22 to agree the terms of a deal and their patrons, Greece and Turkey, will be brought in to help if there is no agreement by then.

Annan then has a remit to fill in any gaps before calling
twin referendums on April 21 on both sides of the island,
divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup engineered by Athens.

Failure to reach a deal will exacerbate the Turkish
Cypriots’ isolation and is likely to harm Turkey’s own hopes of starting EU entry talks in early 2005.

A key Turkish demand is that it be allowed to keep some
troops on the island — it now has more than 30,000. Denktash’s proposals were seen by Reuters last week. He had called for the effective renegotiation of Cyprus’s EU membership and its re-ratification by EU members.

The proposals drew an angry response last week from Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos.