Changing Trains

'Lies, Damned Lies and Hypocrites' - Loucas Charalambous

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POLITICAL hypocrisy and relentless distortion of the truth are the two main features that mark the discourse of the politicians who are leading the ‘no’ camp. It is the kind of discourse that annoys every rational and independently-minded person. For someone to have different views and try to advance them is perfectly acceptable within a democracy. But for a politician to resort to blatant lies and to calculated distortion of reality in order to mislead people is devious and shabby behaviour that cannot be tolerated.

Not very long ago, I had referred to the provocative behaviour by the Nei Orizontes deputy Christos Klerides, who, during a TV debate, had audaciously claimed that, according to the Annan plan, allegedly, “four out of five refugees will lose their properties”. And he made this claim at a time when any fool could find out from reading the plan that, just in the territory that would be given back and become part of the Greek Cypriot constituent state, more than half the refugees (9 out of every 16) would be able to return to their properties.

Today I would like to refer to two of the main arguments being cited by the ‘no’ camp against a solution. The first relates to the presence of Turkish troops. Nikos Kleanthous and Nikos Koutsou have been beating their breasts because a small number of Turkish and Greek troops would remain on the island. But the fact that a few hundred troops would remain is exclusively due to their stupidity. The first version of the plan provided for the complete withdrawal of all the Turkish troops when Turkey joined the EU. In other words it was their insistence on securing improvements and the negotiating skills of President Papadopoulos which resulted in this unfavourable change.

But apart from this, we should also mention the lunacy of their position – the fact that they would rather have 40,000 Turkish troops here forever than just 650. They are opposed to 650 soldiers remaining but are not bothered with 40,000. You would not find such lunacy in a mental asylum.

The other issue is that of the guarantees and the right of intervention. Koutsou, Kleanthous and Angelides have been ranting and raving because the Treaty of Guarantee of 1960 would be maintained and, therefore, Turkey would have the right of intervention. First of all, it should be noted that to be seeking a solution today that improves the Zurich agreement, after everything which happened in the intervening 44 years, is not just disingenuous, is irresponsible sloganeering.

And it is rank hypocrisy for Koutsou to be demanding the abolition of the guarantees, when his party has made it its primary objective to return to the regime established by the Zurich agreement, that is, a return to the Treaty of Guarantee. Of course, we would all like the Treaty of Guarantee to be abolished. But their irrationality goes beyond the pale when they suggest that we should leave the Cyprus problem unsolved, for fear that Turkey may exercise its intervention rights, which it had exercised 30 years ago.

I think that these two examples are more than enough, for every sensible person to understand the degree of irrationality, hypocrisy and deceit that informs the discourse of the ‘no’ camp. If the people are prepared to follow this camp then they deserve the fate that awaits them.

Viewers Left Ignorant

Okay, so a previous post had a sweep at the illusions peddled by the editorial team at the Cyprus Weekly. This comment in the 'Up Periscope' column of the current issue is, however, both accurate and to the point:

Total confusion. Those tuning into the marathon editions of CyBC’s Proektasis programme on Thursday nights to find out more about the Annan Plan probably ended up more confused than inform. The corporation had promised objective assessments of the actual provisions of the plan by experts and then went and teamed up Alecos Markides, who had been a member of the original negotiating team, with Christos Clerides of the tiny, rejectionist New Horizons party. Anchorman Yiannis Kareklas as usual could not control the situation which eventually degenerated into a screaming match. Meanwhile, viewers were phoning in and sending e-mails and faxes (Kareklas actually showed the stack of questions left unanswered at the end of the show). Except very small number of pointed questions/comments the majority of the queries came from understandably worried people who had been kept in the dark too long and wanted specific answers. They didn’t care what was or was not stated in the UN resolutions in 1975 or what was the correct translation into Greek of an English term, they wanted to know about property rights, inheritance, damaged premises, houses occupied by the Turkish army, by foreign residents and much else. None of them got a clear answer When will CyBC and all the other television stations if it comes to that, stop playing political games and find non-political lawyers, economists and analysts to give the public what they genuinely want: objective and knowledgeable analysis of a very complex document?

Its not as if 'non-political lawyers, economists and analysts' dont exist out there - they do, and we have referred to some of them before. One of the story which is almost certainly going be told about this critical period will be about how the broadcast media failed to rise to the challange.

CyBC and the Task of Enlightment

According to the CyBC chairman Andreas Aloneftis the public broadcasting channel in the South will be stepping up its news and cultural programmes for people to hear all opinions of both Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides regarding the Cyprus problem. According to press reports, CyBC will begin producing more sports and children’s programmes and will be airing an increasing number of discussion programmes on educational, political and cultural topics.

Perhaps CyBC ought to give consideration to how it will handle the forthcoming referendum campaign and meet the public need to understand the Annan Plan in order to make an informed choice at the ballot box. It must be said that courage has been pretty poor so far but no worse than other TV stations. Putting the same politicians on discussion programmes, night after night, each attempting to outmanoeuvre the other is hardly guaranteed to enlighten the Greek Cypriot population about the contents of the Annan Plan. Given the government's abject failure to mount a campaign of enlightenment this may have very serious consequences for the future.

Erdogan, the Turkish Media And the Problem with Denktash

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged restraint on the Turkish mass media during the course of negotiations in Cyprus. This call for restraint was justified by him because there was a perceived need to avoid provoking those who wanted to pollute the atmosphere surrounding the negotiations and prevent an eventual solution.

Mehmet Ali Birand, who was present when Erdogan made his appeal to executives of the mass media on CNN Turk offers an interesting spin on the story. For him, Erdogan's desire to see self restraint is to avoid giving the Greek Cypriot leadership any pretext to abandon the talks. However, Birant goes on to suggest that both parties on the island are, according to Erdogan, making statements on the talks were not helping the ongoing peace process. In contrast, the Prime Minister asserts that Turkey and Greece are displaying upmost sensitivity about Cyprus talks while the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriot leaders feel obliged to make statements after every session.

In effect, according to this analysis, both of the negotiating parties are playing of each other as they seek to avoid doing a deal. In conclusion:

It was clear from his words that Erdogan was disturbed by the press briefings Denktas has been making after every meeting in Cyprus. He is not disturbed by his briefing the press but by the words he is using, especially those giving the impression that a settlement would be against interests of the Turkish side. He believes that Denktas is wrong in portraying a bad atmosphere. He openly requests that the media not ask Denktas provocative questions or exaggerate developments on Cyprus.

A settlement on Cyprus was the issue he was most determined and clear on. He has no concerns, no doubts, about this. He reiterated that Annan will fill in the blanks if the sides cannot reach an agreement. He emphasized that a settlement on Cyprus has become inevitable, saying, "This problem was already solved in New York."