Turkish and Greek Cypriot delegations, backed by their motherlands Turkey and Greece, have until midnight Wednesday to reach agreement on a peace blueprint drawn up by UN chief Kofi Annan and revised in the light of amendments requested by the Cypriot parties. If there is no agreement at the Switzerland talks, Annan will polish the blueprint and ask Cypriot leaders to put it to separate referenda on both sides of the island on April 20. The UN initiative is aimed at ending the island's 30-year division before it joins the European Union on May 1st. If there is no peace deal by that date, only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south of the island will join the EU and the breakaway Turkish Cypriots will be left in the cold.
"Exerting pressure on the (Cypriot) sides and making threats ... just means restarting the fighting on the island," Denktash said. He took a swipe at EU German enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who is also present at the Swiss talks. "Verheugen, who went to Switzerland when he had no such authority, is putting inconceivable pressure on the Turkish side in favor of the Greek Cypriots ... He is trying to get what he wants by shouting at our people like a Nazi officer," Denktash told the Anatolia news agency.
Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots want the pan-European bloc to give assurances that a possible peace deal in Cyprus will be firmly anchored in existing EU law. But guarantees offered by Verheugen were not enough, according to a senior Turkish diplomat present at the Swiss talks.
Denktash suggested that should the two sides fail to reach agreement on the UN plan, they should ask Annan to postpone the referenda to have more time to negotiate. "We are not obliged to enter a forced marriage unless elements which destroy the marriage are eliminated," the veteran leader said. Denktash - a fierce opponent of the UN plan - reiterated that he would ask his people to vote against the UN plan in the April referendum if it fails to address Turkish Cypriot concerns and guarantee their rights.
Cyprus was divided in 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island's north in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
