Turkey’s Diplomatic Victory

After a ceremony in which United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, presented the final draft of the Annan plan last night, Erdogan said, "This is the perfect document from the view of the Turkish side."

Erdogan said a guarantee on the terms was given about the sine quo nons of Turkey. After Erdogan, his Greek counterpart, Kostas Karamanli spoke and said that they failed to find a solution to adapt the European Union acquis communitaire. Underlying that the final decision rests with the Greek people and political leadership, Karamanlis added: "I hope, they will act cautiously, responsibly and think ahead about the future."

Annan said that the final draft of the Annan plan will be voted on in a referendum on April 24. In a call for the leaders to guide their people and inform them about the plan, the Secretary-General warned that many opportunities had been missed in the past and another mistake should not be made now.

As for the details of the one-week of bargaining, until Turkey is accepted to the E.U., 650 Turkish military forces will remain on the island. While, the Greek demand of Karpaz region, derogations will be appended to the the agreement to be the primary law in the E.U. jurisprudence.

After the Cyprus peace talks ended, Annan represented the final draft of the plan in a meeting after taking the revision suggestions into consideration. If the plan is put into effect, Annan will take his place in the pages of history with his role in resolving the 30-year old Cyprus issue. Interpretations are that the U.N. will earn a great deal of prestige after the Iraq war failure.

Elsewhere, Erdogan said: "I would like to state with pleasure that we defended our thesis successfully in every step of the negotiations. Turkey’s national Cyprus policy was conducted with the strategy of "win-win". By constituting a collective mind with all the institutions of the state, we conducted the required talks and we earned what we wished for."

The Prime Minister stated the following conditions are fulfilled in the draft:

-Transformation of the agreement into primary law of the E.U.,

-Conservation of by-zonality,

-Guaranteed political equality,

-Protection of national unity of Turkish community,

-Maintenance of Turkish troops on the island even after Turkey accesses to the E.U.,

-Strengthened security and guarantees,

-Protection of Turks of motherland origin.

The parties reached a consensus that will improve the relations between Turkey and Greece until they are as close as the two communities on the island, Erdogan said. He added that Turkey will be respectful to the referendum’s outcome and concluded by telling Greeks and Greek-Cypriots-Greeks: "Let’s walk the road of peace together, take the steps together."

Yesterday, when Greek side continued its objections, the conciliation process was hardened. The Turkish side approached the final draft with precautious optimism and initiated a diplomacy attack to protect the Plan. In particular, the U.S. and English foreign ministers gave tremendous support to the Turkish side. While Greece announced slim chances of a reconciliation under these circumstances, the Greek-Cypriot side stated dissatisfaction with the latest revisions. The Greek duo made efforts to change the Plan. Leader Tassos Papadopoulos voiced the objection, "none of the revision changes we presented yesterday are in the plan, and this is an imbalanced plan."

However, the extended bargaining period delayed the presentation. Upon that Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul with a last minute maneuver announced: "In case of an agreement, we are ready to sign it." Annan thanked the Turkish leaders for their sensitivities. Even though, the Greek side refused sign the plan, this does not constitute an obstruction to the referenda.