President Denktas, pointing out that the Annan Plan was no longer on the agenda after the Greek Cypriot side voted against it in the April 24 referendum, said if despite this it was amended in favour of the Greek Cypriot side’s requests and imposed through a UN Security Council resolution, the Turkish Cypriot side should struggle against this.

Referring to the Greek Cypriot side’s requests to amend the Annan Plan and Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos’ meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for this purpose, President Denktas pointing out that in the Annan Plan it was stated that if either one of the two sides or both of them rejected it in the referendum it would no longer be valid, said the Greek Cypriot side was now trying to amend this plan in line with its own requests and after they had achieved this with the approach that, ‘the Turkish Cypriots have already accepted it (the plan)’, they would try to get the UN Security Council to make this amendment a resolution and impose it on the Turkish Cypriots. He said if this happened there would be chaos. Continuing, the President said, as if 40-years of injustice was not enough, the Greek Cypriots were now trying to sentence the Turkish Cypriots with a Security Council resolution and if their requests were welcomed, the Turkish Cypriots should not fall prey to this game. He said if the Annan Plan was amended in favour of the Greek Cypriots, then the Turkish Cypriot side’s ‘yes’ vote in the referendum would be meaningless. The President said many Turkish Cypriot people voted in favour of the Annan Plan because they believed that if the Greek Cypriot side voted ‘no’, then the TRNC would be recognized, but no one had the right to play with the peoples’ free will and added that he hoped Turkey would see the game being played.

Reiterating that the Annan Plan was prepared by taking into consideration the interests of the USA and the UK, President Denktas said if it was a plan that had been drawn up in line with the Turkish Cypriot side’s interests, then the fact that the Turkish Cypriots were ousted from the 1960 Republic, the mass graves and what the Greek Cypriots had done to Turkish Cypriot properties in the South would have been taken into consideration and a plan would have been drawn up accordingly.

Explaining that a Cyprus settlement passed through a confederation, but that if a federation was to be formed then it should be on the basis of two states, President Denktas stressed that if EU entry was desired, then the state should be protected and the Turkish Cypriots should enter the EU together with Turkey.

Also, referring to Papadopoulos’ claim that ‘not a single Turkish Cypriot was killed between 1963-74’, President Denktas said a settlement couldn’t be reached with the side who forgot and didn’t apologize for what they did to the Turkish Cypriots during that period, but it was very difficult to explain this to the world.