Greek-Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos has denied accusations that he deceived the international community by refusing to endorse a UN plan to reunify the island, claiming the talks process had been riddled with flaws.

Greek-Cypriots in the internationally-recognized south of the island voted overwhelmingly against the plan in referendum on April 24, ending efforts to unite the island before it joins the European Union on May 1.

Contrasted with a 65 percent rate of support in the breakaway Turkish-held north, foreign governments strongly criticized the Greek-Cypriot ‘no’ – ‘oxi’ in Greek – the campaign for which was led by Papadopolous.

“Nobody took these talks seriously except me,” Papadopoulos told a Nicosia news conference, referring to UN-brokered negotiations on the blueprint that restarted earlier this year.

“Everybody involved in the talks were anxious to bring on board Turkey and ensure a ‘yes’ vote by the Turkish-Cypriot community, ignoring the fact that the far bigger Cypriot community had also to be convinced to vote ‘yes.’”

The Greek-Cypriot leader dismissed fears that his community would be punished for exercising their “legitimate, democratic right” in voting on the plan.

“When I go to heads of state dinners, will the waiter pass me over and not serve me?” he joked.

Instead, he appealed to foreign media to present the Greek-Cypriot side rather than stick to the idea that “these are the bad guys, freeze them out.”

Advocates of a ‘yes’ vote claim they were victims of intimidation and media bias during a deeply acrimonious referendum campaign – a claim Papadopoulos dismissed.

“The two sides of the argument were equally represented... both sides shared the television time available on a 50-50 basis,” he said – contrary to findings by the independent Cyprus Broadcasting Authority that television coverage in the four weeks prior to April 20 had been 75 percent to 25 against the deal.

Papadopolous accused forces abroad of “instigating sentiments of fear, insecurity, and uncertainty,” reflecting traditional anxieties among Greek-Cypriot nationalists about alleged foreign meddling in the island’s affairs.

He delivered a stinging rebuke of the UN plan, and stressed that his government remained as committed as ever to a “viable” solution.

Major objections to the deal were plans to grant citizenship to some post-1974 immigrants from mainland Turkey, limits on the proportion of Greek-Cypriots allowed to live in the north, and the funding of the plan.

Asked whether his reputation had been tarnished by comments by EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen that he felt “cheated” by the Greek-Cypriot leadership, Papadopoulos said he had made no secret of his reservations about the Annan plan.

ATHENS – The Greek government has tried to play down the impact of the Greek-Cypriot ‘no’ vote, preparing to meet disappointed EU partners who had been pushing for a ‘yes.’

Greek-Cypriots’ massive rejection of the plan would “of course be respected,” said government spokesman Theodoris Roussopoulos. But he added that Athens would “work to keep the process of finding a definitive settlement open.”

The Greek-Cypriots’ failure to endorse the plan had been widely expected, and Greece had urged its European Union partners to deal with the result pragmatically.

Officials also said Greece would not stand in the way of possible EU measures to improve the lot of Turkish-Cypriots, who will not now enter the EU.

Turkish-Cypriots, who approved the plan, have asked the international community to lift sanctions imposed on them after 1974, when Turkey responded to a Greek-inspired coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece by invading the north of the island.

Following the referendum result, only the internationally-recognized ethnically Greek south will enter the EU on May 1.

Greece had cautiously endorsed the reunification plan before the referendum, with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis saying that “within the European perspective, the positive aspects can outweigh the negative ones.”

Karamanlis also said that the Cyprus issue should not be allowed to affect either Turkey’s bid to join the EU or relations between Greece and Turkey.

But the Greek foreign ministry fully backed Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, who favored a ‘no’ vote, arguing that a rejection by the Greek-Cypriots would only mean that they objected to the blueprint as such, not to reunification per se.

“We will hit turbulence but we are ready,” said Evangelos Meimarakis, a leading figure of Greece’s governing New Democracy party.

“We will try to discuss [the issue] in a constructive manner with our partners, without a dramatic tone because dramatization will not be positive for anyone,” said foreign ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos.

Greece also has some leverage as Turkey wants the EU to give the go-ahead for membership talks with Ankara in December, which Athens backs.