WASN’T DIRECT TRADE ALREADY PAID FOR? |
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Prof. Dr. Ata ATUN |
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Between March 2003 and April 24, 2004, Turkish Cypriots were systematically kept under a heavy bombardment of propaganda and brainwashing.
Also during this period, Turkish Cypriots were consistently de-ceived with “Euro showers” — huge grants to NGOs with pseudo-promises such as, “If you vote yes, the embargoes will be lifted.” As a result a 65 percent majority voted “yes” in the April 24 Annan plan referendum. Naturally the manipulations were over the next day.
At this time a new concept known as “manufacturing public per-ception” was carried into effect by acknowledging communal weak points and ruthlessly brainwashing Turkish Cypriots.
Close your eyes for a moment and recall rallies, the popping-up of pseudo-political parties, broadcasts on the local TV stations and full-color editions of some of the local newspapers during that spell.
Remember what a big setup was it and how the Turkish Cypriots were baited and you will think it is unbelievable.
When a 75 percent majority of Greek Cypriots voted “no” in the referendum, the spell was broken and the anger shifted toward them.
Right after the referenda, in as little as 48 hours, there was a bonus for the 65 percent majority “yes” vote of Turkish Cypriots. You may even call it blood money, but the European Council concluded with the direct trade and financial aid regulations. In other words the majority vote on the part of Turkish Cypriots was paid back with these regulations.
Similar to usual practice after the accession of Greek Cypriots in-to the EU, both regulations were put to death by these people only four days later on May 1, 2004.
Now the EU, or to be more precise EU term president Germany, has revalued one of these regulations only three weeks before delivering the leadership to Portugal, quoting a new price.
According to this new quote, Turkish Cypriots will be granted the direct trade regulation when Turkey fulfills her obligation of officially recognizing the Greek Cypriot administration mentioned in the acces-sion frameworks talks dated Oct. 3, 2005.
Stated briefly, Turkey should recognize the Greek Cypriot admin-istration and, in return, the EU will allow Turkish Cypriots the right to direct trade (of course with them only, not the whole of the world).
Turkish Cypriot merchandise will then be exported from the port of Famagusta, which is currently not recognized as an international sea port. For the internationalization of this port, the ghost town Varosha will be handed to Greek Cypriots.
This is the proposal thought up by German politicians as a final solution to the direct trade affair.
As if this solution was logical and equitable, German Foreign Mi-nister Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the proposal to Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül during the recent Turkey-EU Troika meeting in Ankara as discussions were being held on the Cyprus dispute.
When this new proposal is read carefully, it can be clearly seen that it is not an uplifting of all embargoes, but simply a means for direct trade at an expensive price. Even if the proposal were agreed upon, the unjust political, economic, cultural, social, sporting and trade embargoes will still be standing firm, waiting to exact another unjust and heavy payment for their lifting.
The cost of direct trade will be the handing over of Varosha, the Greek quarter of Famagusta, to Greek Cypriots. Legally this place is owned by the Abdullah Pasha and the Lala Moustapha Pasha founda-tions and has been since the recognition of the Republic of Cyprus that was later occupied by Greek Cypriots on Dec. 21, 1963.
In reality this cost has already been paid and will be paid again in the future as it is the same “monkey business” staged on Crete 150 years ago. This time, however, it will not be the same.
