A difficult game

It wasn't Rauf Denktaş or any other Turkish Cypriot who first used it. It was the former Greek Cypriot leader Glafkos Clerides who said "a non-solution is also a solution in Cyprus." Still, the phrase became synonymous with Denktaş, together with his "Mr. No" title. Was he the one obstructing a resolution on the island, or was he just highlighting the naked truth when he said Greek Cypriots would never agree to a Cyprus settlement based on political equality?

Writing in the Turkish Daily News (now the Hürriyet Daily News), former Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Nicos A. Rolandis wrote an article (Feb. 2, 2008) stressing the lack of enthusiasm on the Greek Cypriot side regarding a resolution to the Cyprus problem. Look what Rolandis wrote back in 2008. 

"The dove and the branch of the olive tree have been our emblems since 1960. Still, prior to the elevation of the dove to the pinnacle of our statehood, we started clipping its feathers. The mere recording of the proposals we had over the years for the solution to our problem and the negative outcomes (we rejected all of them) causes sheer awe. I set out the various instances with no comment.

"Peace moves rejected by Greek Cypriots:

1) 1948: Consultative Assembly: We rejected it.
2) 1955-56: Harding proposals: We rejected them.
3) 1956: Ratcliffe Constitution: We rejected it.
4) 1958: Macmillan Plan: We rejected it.
5) 1959-60: Zurich-London Agreements: We rejected them in 1963 (through the efforts to amend the Constitution) although we initially accepted them.
6) 1964: Acheson Plan: We rejected it.
7) 1972: Agreement of Clerides-Denktaş: We rejected it.
8) 1975: Bicommunal Arrangement: We rejected it.
9) 1978: Anglo-American Canadian Plan: We rejected...