Thousands rally for united Cyprus

The rally was the biggest ever in northern Cyprus

Tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots have demonstrated in northern Nicosia in support of a United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus after 28 years of partition.

As many as 50,000 people - more than a quarter of the population of the breakaway region - took part, according to police and diplomats.

Denktash, if you don't have a pen, we have one

Banner at rally

Protesters were calling on veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to drop his opposition to the UN proposals, which have a deadline of 28 February for acceptance.

This would pave the way for the north along with the more prosperous south to be admitted to the European Union next year.

Opinion polls suggest a large majority of Turkish Cypriots support UN efforts for re-unification.

Schools and shops were closed and demonstrators were bussed in from other towns in the north of the island which is economically and politically dependent on Turkey.

Waving banners saying "Give peace a chance" and "We want to be prisoners no longer", participants took to the streets of the divided capital.

Many also waved flags and olive branches.

Police with plastic riot shields lined the border to prevent people from trying to cross to the Greek side.

Diplomatic push

On Monday, the special UN envoy for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, made a renewed appeal to the sides to come to an agreement over the UN plan before the deadline.

He is leading a fresh push to secure agreement, after the failure of efforts at the EU's Copenhagen summit in December.

Mr Denktash is accused of blocking progress

He said the plan offered little scope for drastic changes.

"The choice is between this plan, perhaps with balanced refinements here and there as needed, and no plan at all," Mr de Soto said.

"Will a re-united Cyprus become a beacon of co-operation between Greece and Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean... or will a divided Cyprus continue to strain relations between Greece and Turkey and vis-à-vis Europe?" he said.

A new round of negotiations is due to begin in the UN-controlled buffer zone between Mr Denktash and the Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides on Wednesday.

However the BBC's Tabitha Morgan in Nicosia says that so far, Mr Denktash has shown no signs of bowing to public pressure.

Mr Denktash has denounced the protesters, saying they weaken his position at the negotiating table.

Isolation

Without Turkish Cypriot agreement, only the prosperous two-thirds of the island run by Greek Cypriots will be granted EU membership.

Many see the UN plan as the best chance of peace and prosperity for years

Correspondents say this would leave the impoverished Turkish Cypriot community - which now numbers about 200,000 - out in the cold.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey sent in troops after a short-lived Greek Cypriot coup by supporters of union with Greece.

Turkey keeps about 30,000 troops in the north of the island which now calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and is recognised only by Ankara.

The UN plan proposed by Secretary General Kofi Annan would reunify Cyprus as a single state with two federal regions linked by a weak central government.

If accepted, the UN envisages that the deal would be put to a referendum on 30 March in the north and the south of the island.

Then, if Cypriots backed the deal, a treaty on enlargement of the European Union, due to be signed in mid-April, would pave the way for the whole island to join the EU.