The Greek Cypriot President Anastasiades has been accused of misrepresenting the state of play in the Cyprus negotiations.
According to President Akinci’s spokesman Baris Burcu, the Greek Cypriot president had given the impression that a “joint consensus” exists on issue upon which no agreement has been reached yet.
President Anastasiades had given an interview with Greek Cypriot daily Politis. Burcu had said that despite prior friendly warnings, pre-election propaganda for the Greek Cypriot parliamentary elections to be held in May, is being conducted in a manner harmful to the negotiations.
Burcu said that when the Turkish Cypriot side issues statements regarding its own positions, it always exerts the maximum effort not to harm the negotiating process. “We have never created the wrong impression that the Greek Cypriot side has adopted our views on issues on which we could not reach a consensus. We would expect our interlocutor to behave in the same manner”, he argued and added:
“Unfortunately it is seen that this is not happening. The interview published today in Politis newspaper is evaluated in this manner by our side. In this interview, the Greek Cypriot leader tried to create the impression that consensus exists on issues on which no consensus has been reached yet. This is not correct. Moreover, the sides formally announce together the issues on which they reach consensus. Approaches like this, which it is very clearly seen that are repetition of the known Greek Cypriot positions and target the elections, make absolutely no contribution to the negotiating process. Our president Mr Mustafa Akinci and his team are committed to the target of the solution of the Cyprus problem. He will continue to act with the sense of responsibility within this framework”.
At the same time, Turkish Cypriot daily Vatan reports that Kudret Ozersay, chairman of the People’s Party (HP), has said that there were some serious issues raised by an interview given by President Anastasiades to a Greek Cypriot newspaper. These do not coincide with the statements made by the Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci, he said. Ozersay called on Akinci to make a statement clarifying the issue.
Writing yesterday on one of his social media accounts, Ozersay argued that the statements made by President Anastasiades show that “the situation is not pleasant at all”. He said that Akinci should make a specific and detailed statement.
Kibris Gazetesi, Vatan
