Greece's blackmailing, anti-Turkish attitude exposed

The article below shows how isolated Greeks and Greek Cypriots are at European level,
to the degree that they accuse other EU member states (Italy, Germany) and the Council
of of Europe of dishonest manipulation only because these states don't support
Greece's blackmailing, anti-Turkish attitude.
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2003-11-25
Politis

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Walter Schwimmer attempts to victimise
the Titina Loizidou case for the cause of his re-election. According to reliable
information of the Greek Cypriot newspaper Politis, Mr. Schimmer has been calculating
votes in view of the forthcoming June elections and has already secured the votes of
Turkey. As the same sources claim, the Turk Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul promised the
twelve Turkish votes to Mr. Schwimmer, in exchange for his support in the Loizidou
case. Apparently, the Secretary General did not have any second thoughts, considering
that Cyprus had only two votes and Greece four.

The same source, being familiar with the lobbying activity in the Council of Europe,
mentioned to Politis that, Mr. Gul had also promised to Mr. Schwimmer the votes of
other counties influenced by Turkey, such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and
Albania. It should be reminded that Mr. Schimmer barely won the previous elections
receiving only two votes more from the rest candidates.

The pre-election alliance between the two "dearest friends", as they are called in
Strasbourg, led the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to surprisingly submit
compromising formula, without having any authorization and managing to upset the whole
scenery in Titina Loizidou case. The Schwimmer formula was tabled after the fourth
intermediate resolution, which recommended that Turkey should unconditionally pay the
compensations. Developments on the case are expected to take place on Wednesday, while
yesterday tension prevailed during the Community meeting.

Nevertheless, Italy also seems involved in the scheme concerning the adoption of the
Schwimmer formula. Information of Politis mention that, Rome, in addition to being
supportive of the Turkish positions, has also its own interests deriving from the
upset scenery of sanctions against Turkey and the implementation of the Court decision
about Loizidou case. As reliable sources said to Politis, more than 2,500 pending
appeals against Italy before the European Court of Human Rights and the implementation
of more than 500 decision of the Court was still pending before the Council of Europe.
Therefore, Rome appraises that sanctions imposed on Turkey over the Loizidou case
would pave the way for more sanctions on all countries refusing to implement decisions
of the European Court of Human Rights, including Italy.

Conflict in the Community meeting
The Community Meeting of Deputy Ministers of the Council of Europe turned out to
conflict, since several countries, including Germany attacked against Cyprus regarding
its stance on the Loizidou case. According to information of Politis, the Permanent
Representative of Germany claimed that Cyprus neither actually cared about the payment
of compensation to Ms. Loizidou, nor about the authority of the European Court of
Human Rights or even about the Council of Europe, but only attempted to hit Turkey,
implying that Nicosia was taking political advantage of the issue. Cyprus, through its
Permanent Representative Nicos Amiliou counter-attacked, strongly recommending that
his counterparts should address themselves to Turkey and end the policy of exerting
pressure and making representations with only objective to impose the Schwimmer
formula. Mr. Amiliou mentioned that, Nicosia was interested in the unconditional
implementation of Court decisions, more then anything, repeating that no compromising
formula could be accepted. The Permanent Representative of Greece Athanasios
Theodorakopoulos adopting the same spirit outlined that Netherlands as acting
President was not authorised to make "community representation" against Nicosia,
literally condemning the Dutch move. As Politis published on last Sunday, European
countries had made representation to the Director General of the Cypriot Foreign
Ministry Sotos Zachaios, which met decisive rejection.