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ANKARA: Can Papadopoulos Jr. Make A Difference?

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  • ANKARA: Can Papadopoulos Jr. Make A Difference?

    CAN PAPADOPOULOS JR. MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Dec 4 2013

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    With the junior coalition member Democratic Party (DIKO) electing to
    its leadership Nicolas Papadopoulos, the son of the late President
    Tassos Papadopulos who earned the title "Mr. No," with his fierce
    opposition to the 2004 Annan Plan, might create an added complication
    to the already deadlocked Cyprus talks.

    It was a razor-thin victory for Papadopoulos Jr. He received 51 percent
    of the vote or just 546 votes more than that which went to incumbent
    Marios Garoyian. This result also demonstrated that most probably
    the fight between the hardliners and the even stronger hardliners
    within DIKO that has been continuing since the December 2008 death of
    Papadopoulos Sr. has not yet ended. Still, the last remarks before
    the vote, both candidates pledged to let election time contentions
    remain in the ballot box.

    The blood feud between the two rival wings within DIKO and,
    consequently a leading DIKO member refusing to support Garoyian in the
    vote for parliament speakership resulted in the precious seat going
    to Ioannakis Omiriu, the leader of the Movement for Social Democracy
    (EDEK). Indeed, there were speculations before the DIKO vote that
    should Papadopoulos lose the contest, his group would abandon DIKO,
    and together with "allies" in EDEK form a new political group. Would
    Garoyian abandon the battle, accept defeat though he lost leadership
    with a negligible 546 votes? What would be the fallout of the continued
    tensions between the winner and the loser of DIKO on the Anastasiades
    presidency? Papadopoulos and his campaign executives were keen in
    stressing during the campaign that DIKO would respect the coalition
    accord with President Nikos Anastasiades and as long as he remained
    loyal to the term of the deal, DIKO would not withdraw its much
    needed support from the government. Indeed, it was under pressure
    from that flank of the party, that in writing the coalition protocol
    the former DIKO chief Garoyian, an Armenian Cypriot, insisted on a
    set of terms under which President Anastasiades has been unable to
    continue the talks from where they were left off by his predecessor
    socialist Demetris Christofias.

    It is at least obvious now that Anastasiades, who maneuvered like
    a belly dancer over the past many weeks to wait for the outcome of
    the coalition partner DIKO's convention before engaging himself in
    any way in a new Cyprus-talks exercise, will be less comfortable
    now. He at least will constantly feel the threat of Papadopoulos to
    withdraw from the government. Could he now steer anywhere close to a
    federation with strong federated units and a weak central government
    he is believed to be preferring over a resolution with a rotating
    presidency, cross-voting and such "lunacies" of the Christofias
    era? Difficult, at least.

    The period ahead will be even more difficult for Anastasiades if he
    really wanted to make it into history as the Greek Cypriot leader to
    have solved the Cyprus problem. Papadopoulos Sr. was talking about a
    resolution with the "right content." That is, a resolution bringing an
    end to Turkish Cypriot presence on the island by melting them in the
    "Cyprus nation," through osmosis. Papadopoulos Jr. is now stressing
    he would work for a resolution "with the right content." That is, of
    course, another way of saying he is opposed to a compromise deal. Now
    the question? Since he has assumed new party leadership and prospects
    of further rising in politics are in the horizon, can Papadopoulos Jr.

    surprise everyone, abandon his father's hardline rhetoric and
    contribute to a compromise resolution? Can he make a difference? Very
    unlikely!

    December/04/2013

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