Foreign Minister Kasoulides: Sunday's dinner crucial for Cyprus talks

Sunday’s dinner between President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will judge the rest of the Cyprus process, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides has said on Tuesday. 

He added that the two leaders will have a chance to discuss openly and honestly.  

In statements on the state radio broadcast, the Foreign Minister recommended that the ere be patience and calm in the process, while saying that he sees things as “difficult”, adding he did not know how both sides could return to the essential convergences, since the Turkish Cypriot side has gone back on them.

Kasoulides noted that “even without the pretext,” the process was not moving forward after the conference on Cyprus in Geneva.  

The Foreign Minister also characterised the decision of the parliament on the 1950 ‘enosis’ referendum as wrong, and that the decision must be corrected.

The parliament’s decision was the cause of tension in the negotiating process, and was, according to the Turkish Cypriot side, the reason Akinci abandoned the negotiating table. 

“If you make mistakes, then you need to correct them,” Kasoulides said. 

He added that the parliament “fell into the trap” of the far-right party ELAM.

Kasoulides also congratulated the DISY party president, Averof Neophytou for his initiative to meet with Akinci last week, and the efforts to correct the parliament’s mistake made by AKEL Secretary General Andros Kyprianou.

Dinner hosted by the Secretary General’s Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide

The UN announced that President Anastasiades and the Turkish Cypriot leader would meet on Sunday at a dinner hosted by the Secretary General’s Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide at Ledra Palace in the Nicosia buffer zone.   

Yesterday, Kasoulides met with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, who assured the former of Athens’ “full and unwavering” support to Nicosia’s policy on the Cyprus issue. 

On the Cyprus problem, Kotzias said both countries have excellent cooperation and mutual concerns.

Answering a question on the Cyprus issue, Kotzias said it has two aspects, an internal and an external aspect. Greece, he said, has never meddled or expressed an opinion on the internal aspects, because Athens “fully and completely supports the policy of the Republic of Cyprus”.

Regarding the external aspect of the Cyprus question, Kotzias said the feeling he got from the talks in Geneva earlier this year is that Turkey is not ready, it may not even want to discuss the issue of guarantees and does not want to relinquish its non-existent illegal right to intervene.

He explained that Turkey abandoned the negotiating table at the point where it was supposed to give answers. Kotzias said he had predicted that Ankara would raise other issues to avoid discussion on the core issues that concern Turkey directly, such as the withdrawal of its occupation troops from Cyprus.

Kotzias said Greece wants to maintain the channels of communication with Turkey, noting that instead Turkey chooses to abandon discussions and make noise.

“It is internationally accepted that Turkey is at present nervous. I hope it overcomes its nervousness and enable us to return to a substantial dialogue on the basis of international law and the real rights of the people,” the Greek FM said.

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