Root and branch reconciliation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots is needed if lasting peace is to be achieved between them, but the government will continue to buy arms while divisions continue, President Glafcos Clerides told the nation Wednesday.
He said it was time to heal the wounds of the past and overcome suspicion and insecurity felt by both communities.
"Passions, hatreds, and extremes should have no room in our political life," he said. "The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities must realize we must work hard to build a common future."
But "until a solution is found, the government will continue its policy of strengthening the defense of the free areas," Clerides said in a speech to mark the 26th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
It was the government's decision to buy Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles -- which could hit mainland Turkey less than 40km (24 miles) away -- which prompted renewed international interest in one of the world's most stubborn political problems.
The missile deal was cancelled in December 1998 under Turkish strike threats and promises from the international players to push for a renewed peace initiative. The missiles -- part of the defense pact signed in 1993 - are now stationed on the Greek island of Crete.
In view of peace talks resuming in Geneva on July 24, Clerides called on the international community to exert pressure on Ankara to show the "political will required" to resolve the decades-long division of the island.
As Clerides spoke Wednesday, the breakaway Turkish community in the north of Cyprus was preparing to celebrate the memory of July 20, 1974, a day they call the "Cyprus peace operation."
The anniversary coincides with a wave of increasing criticism against Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and the clout Ankara wields on the internal issues of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Thousands of Turkish Cypriots staged an unprecedented demonstration Tuesday to protest what they called Denktash's intransigence in the peace process for Cyprus' reunification and Turkey's meddling into Turkish Cypriot domestic affairs.
More than 10,000 people participated in the protest, making it the largest meeting in recent years in the TRNC, which has a population of some 200,000.
But this year's anniversary was expected to be low key to prevent tensions at a time when the United Nations is attempting to broker peace talks between Clerides and Denktash and as Turkey and Greece are enjoying an unprecedented warmth in bilateral ties.
Denktash remained upbeat in the face of the criticism Wednesday.
The Turkish Cypriots' discontent with Ankara was aggravated by the detention in early June of six people, among them four journalists from opposition daily Avrupa, who were accused of spying for Greek Cyprus.
Those people have since been released.
Denktash said Avrupa was a part of a Greek Cyprus-sponsored "mechanism to open a rift between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots."
He stressed it was "compulsory" to preserve close ties with Turkey on the way to an ultimate solution to the Cyprus problem -- NICOSIA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
