Two in three GC think Enosis vote was wrong but most say it shouldn’t be rescinded – poll

Nine out of ten Greek Cypriots believe the excuse Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci gave for leaving the negotiations was inadequate and eight in ten think his stated concerns were unjustified, according to a poll published on Sunday.

Akinci walked away from the table after the House voted to allow schools to commemorate a 1950 plebiscite by Greek Cypriots for Enosis, or union with Greece. He said he would not return to the talks until it was rescinded.

In Sunday’s poll, carried out by IMR and the University of Nicosia for Simerini, 64% believe the House vote was wrong but 77% disagreed that it should be changed to satisfy the conditions set by Akinci for a resumption of dialogue.

Three quarters believe it was Akinci who walked out of the talks but 11% believed it was President Nicos Anastasiades and 14% said they did not know.

Some 47% per cent of those polled thought Anastasiades’ handling of the issue was satisfactory compared with 30% who said it wasn’t great and 23% who thought it was bad.

As far as the attitude of Greece to what transpired, 51% were satisfied with Athens’ stance compared with 49% per cent who were not.

In the case of Turkey, 90% viewed Turkey’s reaction as unfavourable and 81% felt the same about the stance of the UN and EU.

Three out of five of those polled blamed Turkey for the impasse. Below that was Akinci, blamed by 19%, the House of Representatives blamed by 14%. Anastasiades was blamed by 4%, and 3% believe all sides were to blame.

In terms of the general degree of public confidence in the attitudes of those involved in the talks, 44% described their trust in Anastasiades as good or fairly good. Some 31% have some confidence in him but 25% have none at all.

To the same question about Akinci, 24% said they trusted him a little but 71% per cent said they had no trust in him at all. Ninety five per cent of those polled do not trust Turkey at all. Only 18% of Greek Cypriots trust the UN and 19% the EU when it comes to the Cyprus talks.

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.