PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos’ secret meetings with Turkish Cypriot ‘Deputy Prime Minister’ Serdar Denktash before and after April’s referendum, raise a serious point or order, a furious DISY leader Nicos Anastassaides said yesterday.
“We are surprised and saddened by the revealing statements by the Government Spokesman that confirm that secret meetings had taken place,” Anastassiades told a new conference in Nicosia, adding that the meetings had taken place without the political leadership having been briefed.
He said he intended to raise the issue at Friday’s meeting of the National Council, even though in his opinion the Council, whose mandate it is to advise the President on the Cyprus problem, has been seriously undermined if not effectively rendered worthless.
“This raises a big question of order,” said Anastassiades. “Instead of President Papadopoulos informing the National Council and the people about these meetings and the content of these meetings, we have to read about them in a foreign newspaper.”
Anastassiades was referring to a recent interview Papadopoulos gave to the Dubai Khaleej Times, in which the President said he met a Turkish Cypriot leader but declined to reveal his identity. He said he had asked for a postponement of the negotiations for a few months to resolve some problems.
There were at least two secret meetings, one in Burgenstock where the failed Cyprus negotiations were held, and one in Nicosia.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides, however, revealed on Monday that there had been meetings before and after the referendum, and confirmed that Serdar Denktash was one of the people Papadopoulos had met secretly, along with other representatives of Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat.
Anastassiades questioned why Papadopoulos would prefer Serdar Denktash “someone who wants two separate states” as his preferred interlocutor.
“It appears that President Papadopoulos, although he refused to meet Mr Talat in Burgenstock, despite the latter’s repeated calls to do so, preferred to have secret meetings with Mr Serdar Denktash for one hour and 30 minutes,” the DISY leader said.
“What was it that Mr Serdar Denktash knew that no member of the National Council knew?” He also questioned why the President had reacted so negatively when he himself had met Talat.
“We consider it an offence not only to take part in secret discussions, but that President Papadopoulos decided that he could reveal his positions to the Turkish Cypriot side but not to Greek Cypriot political leaders,” Anastassiades said.
“I also express my bitterness that our own initiatives for dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot side, which are conducted under conditions of complete transparency and with written briefings to the President of the Republic, seeking the creation of conditions of reciprocal respect and understanding between the two communities, were mocked in unacceptable terms.”
He said he also brought up with Papadopoulos on August 2 the subject of a possible meeting between the President and Talat, but the notion was rejected by Papadopoulos.
Anastassiades said he would not name any other politicians or party leaders who might have taken part in the meetings with Talat.
“I leave this subject open so that I do not wrongly attribute any responsibilities on any political leader,” he said.
But he added, the real issue was why Papadopoulos had rejected the notion of meetings with Talat in favour of meeting Serdar Denktash, and why the National Council had been sidelined. “If the President prefers to give away his thoughts and positions to Mr Denktash rather than the Greek Cypriot leadership, then we do not see the raison d’être and function of the National Council,” he said.
Asked what he thought the aim of the meetings with Denktash were, Anastassiades said they were not only for the postponement of the referendum but also for the indefinite postponement of any discussions.
“These are the big question marks,” he said. “It’s up to him to explain to us what is preventing him from meeting Mr Talat.”
