Annan attempts new effort to unite Cyprus after hardliner wins election
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Your support makes all the difference.The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, was said yesterday to be preparing a last-ditch effort to reunite Cyprus after the island's opposition leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, won a general election at the weekend.
Mr Papadopoulos, who has opposed all previous efforts to end the 29-year division of the island, met the UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto yesterday, who said later that Mr Papadopoulos understood that a solution must be reached by the end of the month.
Mr Papadopoulos wants improvements to the plan despite warnings that little can be changed without sparking counter-demands from the other side, which could plunge the process into disarray.
The Turkish-Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, attacked Mr Papadopoulos, saying his win threatened to deadlock the United Nations' efforts to reunite the island. "As long as Papadopoulos does not draw himself a realistic plan and abandon his imaginary solutions, there is no reason to continue with this dead-end process," he said. "It is the intransigent stance of the Greek-Cypriot people which won."
With the deadline for a peace deal in 10 days, Mr Papadopoulos will take over the crucial reunification negotiations immediately.
Mr Annan, due in Nicosia on 26 February, will try to forge an agreement between the two sides in time for separate referendums that could allow a united Cyprus to sign the European Union accession treaty in April.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Abdullah Gul, said Mr Annan would unveil another peace plan in an attempt to reunite the divided island of Cyprus. "Secretary general Annan is coming to Turkey next week. We know that he has another plan, something we hope will be to the satisfaction of both sides," Mr Gul said.
The leader of the conservative Diko party, Mr Papadopoulos campaigned as a tougher negotiator than the incumbent, Glafcos Clerides, and swept to power with more than 51 per cent of the vote.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey occupied the northern third in response to a coup, engineered by Athens, seeking union with Greece.
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