Anastasiades not attending Erdogan Istanbul dinner after surprise arrival of Akinci

President Nicos Anastasiades was not expected to attend a dinner hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in light of the World Humanitarian Summit on Monday night in Istanbul.

According to the Cyprus News Agency this was because Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci was invited – a development which was seen as a surprise because only last week, Akinci’s spokesman was quoted as saying the Turkish Cypriot leader had not been invited to the summit.

Akinci arrived in Istanbul on Monday night and was greeted by Turkish EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir at the airport as ‘President of the TRNC’. He and Anastasiades only meet ‘officially’ as leaders of the two communities in Cyprus.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.