President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met for dinner in Nicosia on Sunday night on their first encounter since talks reached an impasse in mid-February but left a date for the resumption of the negotiations open-ended.
The dinner went on for almost four hours but ended without anything concrete about the resumption of the talks or any commitment or desire by the leaders to resume the stalled dialogue as is usual in such joint statements.
The brief initial joint statement issued by the UN at 11.50pm read: “Tonight, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr. Mustafa Akıncı, and the Greek Cypriot leader, Mr. Nicos Anastasiades, had an open and constructive exchange about the challenges experienced over the last months. Furthermore, they exchanged ideas about the way ahead. As the two leaders will be abroad in the coming days, the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General, Mr Espen Barth Eide, will be continuing his interaction with them in order to lay the groundwork for the resumption of the negotiations as soon as possible.”
When Anastasiades returned to the presidential palace he declined to make any statements to the waiting press, saying only that the UN announcement had said what needed to be said, according to Cybc reporters there. Reports earlier said the climate at the meeting had been good.
A second ‘corrected’ statement issued by the UN at 2.45am on Monday added the following line to the original text: ” The two leaders reconfirmed their joint commitment to finding a solution in the best interest of all Cypriots, taking into account the concerns of both communities”.
The aim of the meeting at the Ledra Palace in the capital’s Green Line at Eide’s invitation, was to try and re-start a dialogue but rhetoric from both sides in recent weeks has not been helpful to the process. Just prior, Eide tweeted: “Looking forward to hosting @AnastasiadesCY & @MustafaAkinci_1 for dinner at Ledra Palace Hotel in #Nicosia tonight. #CyprusTalks”
Cybc, citing UN sources on its main news bulletin, said Eide had spoken with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prior to the dinner and that the UN’s aim was to have the leaders agree to a date for the resumption of talks as soon as possible and to agree to seek a new methodology going forward as the current format “had ended its cycle”. Akinci is due to meet the UN chief in Brussels on Tuesday.
The two negotiators were also due to attend the dinner but reports said Akinci requested that only he, Anastasiades and Eide participate.
Outside the Ledra Palace a group of Greek and Turkish Cypriots gathered to protest, urging the leaders to restart the talks. They spoke with Eide on his way in, CNA said. He told them he would pass on their message to the leaders. One of the banners read: ‘Solution Now’.
Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said earlier on Sunday that Anastasiades was attending the dinner hopeful that there would be a response for the immediate resumption of talks.
The talks were suspended when Akinci walked out of a meeting in mid-February, claiming that a House decision that schools commemorate a 1950 referendum advocating Enosis., union with Greece, had been a shift in the-long standing position of the Greek Cypriot side for a bicommunal, bizonal federal solution in Cyprus. He wanted the decision revoked before returning to the table. A compromise, turning over decisions on school commemorations to the education ministry is due to go to a vote next Friday.
Anastasiades, though he described the House’s original decision “wrong” in terms of timing, criticised Akinci for overreacting, something he has repeated on numerous occasions since.
Akinci was quoted earlier on Sunday as saying his goal from attending at the dinner was to see if it might be possible to reach a solution in two months if talks were to resume immediately.
If dialogue was productive enough in April and May, it would be clear by then whether it was possible to reach a settlement.
The deal should include political equality, security and freedoms for the Turkish Cypriots, he said. If not, then the whole process would need to be reassessed. He said the attitude of the Greek Cypriot sides as regards confidence building measures (CBM) was not positive. Akinci said during the week that he only wanted to discuss CBMs ahead of the new House Enosis vote.
Akinci also referred to the fact that the Greek Cypriots would begin hydrocarbons drilling in June, and after that the presidential elections in the south of the island would be in full swing ahead of the poll in February 2018 and putting off the Cyprus issue until March that year “which would make the process more problematic”. Timetables are anathema to the Greek Cypriot side.
Christodoulides reiterated on Sunday: “Hopefully tonight reason and seriousness will prevail and will result in the return of the Turkish Cypriot side to the table and the immediate resumption of talks without terms and conditions, in particular without timeframes which in the past have led to failed attempts [at reaching a solution]”.
