Hamamboculeri.org: Alternatif Haber,Ingilizce, 13 Aralik 2002
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Turkish Cypriots demonstrate for peace, call on Denktash to quit
NICOSIA, Dec 13 (AFP) - Thousands of Turkish Cypriots took to the streets here on Friday, calling on their veteran leader Rauf Denktash to agree to a UN-brokered settlement plan to end the island's division or step down.
"Denktash, sign it or resign," chanted the 5,000-strong crowd gathered in a park in the Turkish-held section of Nicosia.
"Peace right now, peace on Cyprus cannot be prevented," they shouted.
The demonstration, organized by opposition parties and some trade unions, followed a refusal by the breakaway Turkish Republic of Cyprus (TRNC) to sign a UN deal on re-unifying the island.
Earlier Friday, Denktash, who is recuperating in Ankara following heart surgery in October, denounced international pressure on him to agree to the UN plan at the EU summit in Copenhagen.
"No one should pressure us by threats into signing a document which we have not negotiated with the Greek Cypriots," Denktash told reporters as he was being discharged from an Ankara hospital where he underwent a check-up.
UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto was involved in last-minute shuttle diplomacy in Copenhagen in an attempt to clinch a deal on the reunification plan so as to allow the island to join the European Union as a whole.
The EU presidency said in its draft final statement Friday that Cyprus, led by its internationally recognized Greek Cypriot administration in the south, was among the 10 candidate states that would be invited to join the bloc in May 2004, whether or not a re-unification agreement was reached.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 along ethnic and religious lines when Turkey occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup seeking to unite the island with Greece.