Quotes of the Day

Tassos Papadopoulos, President of the Republic of Cyprus and leader of the Greek Cypriot community, spoke to TIME Magazine's Central Europe Bureau Chief ANDREW PURVIS in the Presidential Palace overlooking Nicosia about his reasons for urging Cypriots to reject the United Nations "Annan Plan" that would reunite the island after 30 years of separation. Referendums on the plan are scheduled for each side of the divided Mediterranean island on April 24.

Will the Annan plan be rejected? I think the majority of the people are against it.

Your speech (objecting to the plan on nationwide TV) was very emotional. I spoke genuinely, truthfully and in what I believed. Any emotion was just springing up because of what I was saying.

Do you think you have had a big impact on voters? More than I expected. People in all walks of life responded favorably.

Are they well informed? They are well briefed.

Yet the "no" campaign in Cyprus is simplistic in the extreme... Why is that strange? The questions are two, and brief: "yes?" or "no?"

But the plan itself is complex. Ordinary people have their own instinct for what they want. Every person who is interested in one aspect of the plan knows what it provides for him ...

Your assessment was almost entirely negative. I enumerated all the positive points. It's not my fault that there were only four.

Why not address the long term benefits of a reunified Cyprus? The plan is at least a solution. Is it? All elements which push people towards working and mixing together are missing from the plan. The idea of having two entities is there, but the trimmings are missing.

You claim that Greek Cypriots will get nothing from day one. What do you mean? Forty-eight hours after the U.N. Secretary-General determines the outcome of the referendum, the Turkish Cypriots gets acknowledgment of their separate legal entity, they participate in all decision-making on an a 50- 50 basis, they become European citizens, they participate in everything. Now the Greeks get some benefits. They get some land back — their own land mind you — but this will start at the earliest 104 days after the referendum. We get a solution ... but implementation will take a long time. So we are buying hope.

Surely, it is more than "hope". The Turkish side is undertaking binding commitments. I want assurances that those commitments will be implemented.

Are the Turks not to be trusted? I did not say that. I just want assurances.

What kind of assurances? It could be from the United Nations Security Council, or other organizations. It could be other countries.

If the U.S. Secretary of State provided you with those assurances — that the plan would be implemented — would that be enough? I am not going to tell you now. I will wait to see what is possible and what they can do.

In negotiations that ended this month, U.N. officials said both sides failed to compromise. We even passed the area of safety for our side in our negotiations. We sacrificed human rights.

Do you bear any responsibility for the failure? No. I fully explained our red lines. Some people wanted us to find a solution at any cost. My part was to say that I don't agree that a solution at any cost will be viable.

Supporters of the plan in Cyprus say you seem to be against any kind of federation of the two sides. That is adding insult to injury. The whole idea of a bizonal, bicommunal federation was my idea. It was my understanding of the solution of the Cyprus problem. I was the chairman of the committee which drafted those proposals in 1977.

Are you concerned that your rejection of the plan may result in permanent partition? I agree with you that with the turning down of the plan that the separation of the two parts of Cyprus will be intensified. But one has to weigh that against the other risks — giving up everything to the other side and being left with a deadlocked, non-functioning, non-unified country.

The U.N., U.S. and E.U. all disagree with you. And yet you are joining the E.U. next month. Do you expect consequences? We have a very heavy task to explain to the E.U. why the Annan plan does not really provide for a unified Cyprus joining the E.U.

The choice according to the U.N., U.S. and E.U. is not between this plan and another plan but between this plan and nothing. Do you believe that? This is the authorship syndrome, if you write something you think it is particularly good.

Let me remind you that the same words were said by U.N. chief negotiator Alvaro da Soto before Copenhagen talks in 2002. Actually he said 'I do not even dare envision the chaos which will occur if this is not accepted.' There was Annan number one, Annan number two, Annan number three — promoted by the same people who say this is the last chance.

• The President of Greek Cyprus, on the U.N.’s reunification plan