Annan Presents Cyprus Proposal

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday presented his own plan to reunify Cyprus after Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders failed to agree on how to unite the long-divided island.

Cypriots on the Greek and Turkish sides will vote simultaneously but separately on the plan April 24. If both sides accept, a unified Cyprus will join the European Union on May 1.

If either side rejects the plan, only the Greek Cypriot side will become part of the EU. The Turkish side would remain isolated, with little independent prospect of inclusion.

“The time for negotiations and consultation is over,” Annan told Turkish, Greek and Cypriot leaders from both sides of the island who gathered in the Swiss mountain resort of Buergenstock. “The time for decision and action has arrived.”

In February, Cypriot leaders handed Annan the power to “fill in the blanks” in case of a breakdown in talks. They failed to agree by a March 29 deadline, and Annan presented his blueprint Wednesday after last-minute negotiations with both sides. It proposes to establish a Swiss-style federal government overseeing two states with independent identities largely running their own affairs.

The Turkish side quickly endorsed Annan’s proposal, confirming that it would hold the referendum.

“No side has lost in these negotiations,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters.

Turkey itself wants to join the EU, and hopes that an agreement on Cyprus would help its cause.

The Greek side is more cautious. Greek Cypriots, who make up more than two-thirds of the island’s 800,000 people, will join the European Union on May 1, whatever the outcome of the referendum. Despite an emotional desire to see their island reunited, a majority of Greek Cypriots oppose the Annan plan, according to a poll by the Cypriot television station Antenna.

Reunification would require them to subsidize Turkish Cypriots in the impoverished north, the way Germany supported former East Germany after reunification.

In a statement issued in Berlin, where he is attending a conference on Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell welcomed the latest moves as “a powerful signal of reconciliation.”

Annan warned that it may be the last chance to end one of the world’s most intractable disputes, which has eluded a solution for 40 years. “Let me be clear. The choice is not between this settlement plan and some other magical or mythical solution,” he said. “In reality, at this stage, the choice is between this settlement and no settlement.”

Fighting between Cypriot Greek and Turkish communities brought U.N. peacekeepers to the territory in 1964. A decade later, the island was formally partitioned when Turkey seized the northern third, ostensibly to protect Turkish citizens after a coup by supporters of a union with Greece.

In 1983, the Turkish Cypriot leaders announced the formation of an independent republic, recognized only by Turkey, which keeps 40,000 troops there.

Annan’s 200-page plan says that a proportion of Greek Cypriot refugees who were displaced from the north could return to their homes, or receive compensation. Some Turkish Cypriots who settled on the island after the 1974 Turkish invasion would have to move, Annan said, but fewer than originally expected.

Greek negotiators had pressed to have Turkish soldiers withdraw from the island. Under the plan, Turkey would have to reduce the force, but wouldn’t have to totally withdraw.

The U.N. maintains 1,200 peacekeepers in Cyprus.

Annan has hoped that solving the Cyprus dispute would be part of his legacy as secretary-general. He brought both sides close to an agreement last year, but Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf R. Denktash refused to put it to a referendum.

“There have been too many missed opportunities in the past,” Annan said. “For the sake of all of you and your people, I urge you not to make the same mistake again.”