Turkey cannot Negotiate without Recognizing Us

Papadopulous told Greek Alfa television that the EU will not ignore Greece and the Greek Cypriot side, and as member states, they may terminate Turkey’s negotiation process. The Greek leader had said after the December 17th EU summit in Brussels that they would veto the negotiation process if Turkey does not expand the supplementary protocol of the Ankara Agreement to include the ten new members including Cyprus by October 3, 2005. The EU had said Turkey’s signing of the protocol would not have to mean recognition of the Greek Cypriot side. Papadopulous’s statement that Turkey would have to recognize the Greek Cypriot side in order to start negotiations was striking.

Papadopulous repeated that he will not put the Annan Plan to referendum as is. He said he is ready for negotiations, but that he will not accept the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s arbitration and the tight negotiations timeline. The Greek Cypriot leader argued that ‘this time the timeline is not for Cyprus, but for Turkey’. When asked if he was feeling positively about a solution, Papadopulous said, "this depends on Turkey’s attitude and Turkey should abandon its double-state policy in Cyprus."