February
26, 2008 Can New Cypriot
President Unite
his Divided Island?
Nicosia (Cyprus)
Past Cypriot leaders have been unable to guide their island toward
reunification. Now the question on everyone's lips as the divided
city of Nicosia celebrates the election of Cyprus' new president is
whether Dimitris Christofias can find success where his predecessors
failed.
Within hours of securing victory as Cyprus' new president,
Christofias immediately agreed to meet with Turkish Cypriot leader
Mehemt Ali Talat to revive reunification efforts in the near future.
Reports said that the Turkish Cypriot leader telephoned Christofias
to offer congratulations, and the two men agreed to meet at the
earliest possible date.
Christofias' victory has revived hopes of relaunching peace talks,
after negotiations broke down in 2004 after Greek Cypriots rejected
a UN plan and instead joined the EU without the Turkish Cypriots.
The election came as UN mediators will attempt another peace plan,
intended to mend the divisions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on
opposite sides of the ceasefire line.
The island has been divided since 1974, and Cyprus is represented
internationally by the Greek Cypriot government in the south, while
the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north is recognized only by Ankara,
which maintains 30,000 troops in the enclave.
The long running standoff is a thorn in relations between NATO
allies Greece and Turkey and has been an obstacle to Turkey's
efforts to move toward EU membership.
In a surprising turn of events, Cypriots signalled that they were
ready for a return to the negotiating table, after voting to send
incumbent hardliner Tassos Papadopoulos home in the first round of
presidential elections Feb 17.
Since the 2004 referendum, when the majority of Greek Cypriots voted
down an UN-backed peace plan to end the decades-old division,
Papadopoulos had made no real attempt to break the deadlock.
Many voters felt his failure to take a firm stance to initiate
stalled peace talks with the island's Turkish Cypriot community only
ended up alienating the Greek Cypriots in the European Union.
The win makes the Soviet-educated Christofias, 62, the only
communist leader in the 27-member European Union and the first to
head Cyprus.
Despite his party's Leninist roots, Christofias has assured the
business community that he will not interfere in the country's
strong economy, which has a history of attracting foreign
investment.
Final results showed Christofias to have won 53.36 percent of the
vote and rival Ioannis Kasoulides 46.64 percent.
"Today the public spoke. ... There are many difficulties before us,
but from tomorrow we unite our efforts to achieve the reunification
of our country," Christofias said in his victory speech, as
supporters honked car horns and set off flares.
He pledged to immediately pursue peace talks with Turkish Cypriots
on the ethnically divided island and said that his meeting with
Talat would be arranged through the United Nations.
"I do not think Mr Kasoulides or myself has the magic formula to
break the deadlock," Christofias said Friday in a televised debate.
"But I have the goodwill to move forward to try to find a
settlement. It is an absolute necessity."
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