Dr. Salih Egemen, director of the Redborder research company, appeared yesterday on Öğlen Ajansı, hosted by Cem Kar. Assessing the results of their public opinion survey, Egemen said the real problem was the government’s practices, pointing out that foregrounding the Cyprus problem and relegating the economy and social structure to the background was a chosen political practice.
Egemen said they had asked the public many questions in their surveys, including: Who do you think will win the presidential election to be held in April 2010? Who are you thinking of voting for? If an agreement similar to the Annan Plan is put to a referendum, how will you vote? If it becomes clear that there will be no solution as a result of the ongoing negotiations, what alternative would you propose for the TRNC? Which party will you vote for? How do you rate the government’s performance over the past six months? Will there be a solution? He said they had shared the results with the public.
Egemen said the survey had been carefully conducted with 500 people and noted that Talat’s weak point was that people did not believe in a solution. Egemen said, “Because belief within the community that there will be a federal solution is quite weak. The reasons for this are in fact the constant messages coming from the South that there will be no solution. These problems were not addressed; on the contrary, these messages made them worse, and Talat’s shortcoming is that he has no Plan B. The course he should take is to sit down with his team and discuss what mistakes he has made so far. Derviş Eroğlu should do the same. Both sides need to sit down, think about their next steps, and act accordingly.”