Another topic of discussion was Tsipras’s talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a humanitarian summit in Istanbul earlier this week and the challenges posed by the European refugee crisis. “With such attitudes, Cyprus does not have more time to lose”.
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President Nicos Anastasiades canceled the planned meeting after discovering Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci had been invited to this week’s World Humanitarian Summit, held in Istanbul.
To make matters worse, President Anastasiades was only informed of Akinci’s participation when UN Cyprus Envoy Espen Barthe Eide phoned him just hours before the dinner.
It is the first serious hitch in UN-brokered peace talks that resumed a year ago and comes despite both leaders saying in a May 15 joint statement that they remain as committed as ever to reunifying the Mediterranean island in 2016.
Implicitly blaming the United Nations for the controversy, Cypriot government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said there was “no fertile ground” for Friday’s planned meeting in Nicosia.
Turkey is still aiming for full membership of the European Union but is frustrated by progress so far, and will support United Nations efforts towards a resolution in Cyprus, according to a new government programme announced on Tuesday.
Nicosia called Monday’s events “unacceptable”, and also accused UN Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide of involvement in a deeply sensitive diplomatic game.
The island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974, triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. “Without unilateral moves which seek to upgrade the pseudo-state”, Christodoulides said in a statement.
The Greek Cypriot administration does not recognise Turkish Cypriot authority in the north of Cyprus, where the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was announced in November 1983.
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Such actions by any party – “with the special adviser of the UN Secretary general not excluded” – undermine the process, he said. “Our close cooperation and the promotion of initiatives of tripartite cooperation have turned Greece and Cyprus into an essential pillar of economic cooperation, peace and stability and I think that this role give us an advantage to see better conditions in the effort to solve the Cyprus problem always according to the rules of the worldwide law”, the prime minister said, however, noting that “this is a road with ups and downs”.
