Greek Cypriots ready to say "no"

The Greek Cypriots never believed there could be a solution. The necessary environment for peace was not in place. They were always of the mindset that "The Turks will reject any solution, anyway." When Ankara played a different game this time around, they were caught unprepared.

This unexpected result also caused the communist AKEL to change its stance. No matter what we say — for example, "Nothing is certain until the last minute. The proportion of the undecided is too high. Their decision matters" — if we don’t have a miracle or unless AKEL decides to change its attitude, we should be certain of a "no" vote in the south.

You can see the confusion in the Greek Cypriot community everywhere you look. You constantly hear statements like, "Let the plan be amended slightly, and then we’ll accept it."

When you ask them what they’re waiting for, everybody says something different.

Some say they don’t trust Turkey and claim that Ankara will violate the plan and won’t pull out its troops.

Some believe that imperialist powers (the U.S. and Britain) prepared the plan just to please Turkey and think that tiny Cyprus should resist their calls.

Others say they will lose their 40-year-old state and would have to share their wealth with the Turks.

In summary, Greek Cypriot society is not ready. The likelihood of any change seems very low.

Greek Cypriots will be sorry tomorrow night.

They will ask themselves, "What have we done?"

However, it will be too late.

Turkish side will also lose, but it will be Greek Cypriots who have partitioned the island and will fall into the trap their political leaders have been preparing for a long time.
Greek Cypriots will cure us of our phobias

The Greek Cypriots will in a way help us by voting "no." Am I mistaken?

If you had been through years of listening to Cyprus problems at international conferences or parliaments as a Turkish journalist or as a commentator, you would also feel relived at the developments.

We would all have had phobias.

We were both in the right and were finding it hard to explain why.

The 1974 military intervention was based on solid ground. Turkey was supported by the international community during its first military incursion but not during its second.

However, over the years, we were accused of imperialistic ambitions and were portrayed as invaders trying to wipe out a tiny country. Whenever the Greek lobby found a Turkish politician or journalist anywhere in the world, they would make him or her sorry to have left the country.

As if that were not enough, they also incited Armenians and Kurds and had formulated a solid campaign against us. Wherever we went or whenever a Turkish flag was unfurled, we would be faced with this campaign.

"Murderers should answer for their crime."

I can still hear the protests.

After tomorrow night, all of us will be relieved.

No matter what the Greek Cypriots decide, this nightmare will end.

There will be no U.N. resolutions targeting us.

We will not be beaten up by the Greek/Greek Cypriot lobby or other parliamentarians in the European Parliament or the European Council.

If the Greek Cypriots say "no", they will no longer be able to accuse us of being invaders. If they say "yes," they will have nothing to say.

The Greeks/Greek Cypriots had the moral high ground on their side. Now it’s our turn.

Even this much is enough for those who tried to defend Turkey over the years.

Let the Greek Cypriot leadership think about what comes next.