Cypriot Annan Plan referendums

Should Turkish Cypriots try to defend their own interests even if that amounts to hurting Turkey's interests? Or should they defend Turkish interests even if that requires their own interests be sacrificed? This is not an egg and chicken story, but a very serious issue that deserves a very serious evaluation. The question is of course also related to who the Turkish Cypriots are.

Perhaps time has come to try to convince the two peoples of Cyprus that what the two leaders and negotiating teams have been discussing ?discreetly?

A ?United Cyprus Federation? has been on the agenda of resumed negotiations with the Greek side of the divided island, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Ak?nc? has said.

Two hot developments happened simultaneously concerning the eastern Mediterranean. One is from Cyprus, the other from Iraq. 

Don?t consider that what happens in Iraq is far away from the eastern Mediterranean? Syrian ports, the Persian Gulf and indeed Turkey?s Mediterranean shores are on the same ?strategic fault line.? 

The Turkish and Turkish Cypriot presidents refrained from publicly revisiting a quarrel over their ?motherland-baby land? argument, instead focusing on the soon to resume reunification talks of the divided island during a joint press conference in May 6.

The citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will vote in a presidential election on April 19, with an atmosphere of returning to the bargaining table developing on both the Turkish and Greek sides of the divided island. 

The recent internal agreement between Baghdad and Arbil should set an example for sharing potential energy resources off Cyprus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing that Turkey will never abandon the rights of Turkish Cypriots in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It is not conducive to the peacemaking process to let illusions – regardless of how wide they might be subscribed to – replace realities. To claim, for example, for more than three decades there was no People’s Republic of China helped no one, and eventually China was welcomed to take its seat as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

It was Turkey’s Piri Reis seismic ship that was, until recent times, reasserting the country’s partnership with Turkish Cyprus over sovereignty and natural resources on and off Cyprus. For decades, the foundation of Ankara’s Cyprus policy has been tit for tat, sometimes proactive but most of the time reactive.

Turkish Cypriots will be heading to a presidential election next April, the campaign of which will apparently be very colorful.