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Cyprus:
Socialists quit Government coalition
Menelaos Hadjicostis
Socialist party EDEK quit Cyprus' coalition Government on Monday over
its disagreement with the president's handling of slow-moving talks
aimed at reunifying the divided island.
The party's executive committee voted to pull out of the coalition
amid criticism that the island's Greek Cypriot President Dimitris
Christofias is following a "mistaken strategy" and has made
"unacceptable" concessions in negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader
Mehmet Ali Talat. "The limits have been reached. The course we are
following is mistaken," said EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou. "The
disagreement with the president's strategy on the Cyprus issue is now
complete." The party's exit will not trigger new elections under Cyprus'
presidential system of Government. But it does signal growing
disillusionment with peace talks that have carried on for 17 months with
only marginal progress.
Cyprus was split into an internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot
south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north 1974 when Turkey invaded
after a coup by supporters union with Greece.
Despite its socialist ideological grounding, EDEK, which garnered
around 9 percent of the vote in 2006 parliamentary elections, has
traditionally espoused hawkish views on reunification efforts.
EDEK chiefly opposes Christofias' proposal for an alternating
presidency with the minority Turkish Cypriots under an envisioned
federation and to allow thousands of mailand Turks who settled in the
north after the war to remain on the island under a peace accord.
Although negotiations are being conducted on the basis of "nothing is
agreed until everything is agreed," any deal hammered out by Christofias
and Talat will be put to simultaneous referendums in both communities.
EDEK's decision comes as a blow to Christofias who, despite still
high public approval ratings, has been under mounting pressure from EDEK
and fellow coalition partner, center-right DIKO, to adopt a tougher
negotiating stance.
Opinion polls show most Cypriots on both sides of the divide believe
this round of talks will share the same fate as numerous other failed
rounds over the past 35 years.
Talat faces his own troubles as opinion polls show him trailing
hardline rival Dervis Eroglu ahead of an April 18 election.
Associated Press
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