President Nicos Anastasiades announced on Wednesday that he would not release the minutes of the controversial five-hour dinner of July 6 at the Crans-Montana Conference on Cyprus, which ended in failure.
In a statement, Anastasiades said that at the request of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and out of respect for “diplomatic norms”, he had decided not to release the minutes at the moment.
He added that he will, however, release part of them to the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Guterres and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. He added that he will inform the National Council on August 1 on the latest developments in the settlement talks.
Anastasiades had said on Monday that the minutes from the final part of the dinner should be released in order to tell the truth, which he said was distorted by claims by United Nations’ special adviser Espen Barth Eide that Anastasiades may have squandered an opportunity offered unofficially by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
In interviews given by Eide to local media outlets last weekend he repeated his view that the talks collapsed because of a “collective failure” and that discussions at the July 6 working dinner – that led to the collapse of the talks – were moving towards a situation of no guarantees. Eide also rejected claims made by the Greek Cypriot side that Guterres had misunderstood the content of a private conversation with Cavusoglu about Ankara’s willingness to ditch the guarantees system from the first day of a settlement.
His comments were not well received by the Greek Cypriot side as the Cyprus government’s position has been that the Turkish side was 100 per cent to blame for the collapse of the talks.
“I would like to emphasise that Mr Eide’s continued selective public references are in stark contrast to the explanations he gave at our recent meeting on July24,” Anastasiades said on Wednesday.
Everything Eide said at the meeting the two men had on Monday, Anastasiades said, were in agreement “with what was recorded that evening about the positions of the Turkish side and the responsibility for the final development of the discussion, as well as with the detailed minutes kept by the negotiator of the Greek Cypriot side, Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis”.
At Monday’s meeting, Anastasiades said, Eide not only congratulated the Greek Cypriot side for being the only side to submit specific proposals within the UNSG framework, but also pointed out that the Turkish side did not respond to these proposals either in writing or verbally.
He added that he called on Eide to make public corrective statements “to restore the actual facts to end the misinterpretation he allowed to be understood through whispers”.
“I pointed out to him that he is the only one who refutes with his statements what Mr Cavusoglu proclaimed, both before July 6, when he stated that ‘Greek Cypriots must wake up from the dream of terminating the guarantees and intervention rights’ and after July 6 when he stated that “the proposal for the termination of the Treaty of Guarantees and intervention rights is a silly proposal that could not be accepted “.
To make his point Anastasiades gave an account of what he discussed on Monday with Eide.
He said that Eide agreed with him that the proposals the Greek Cypriot side submitted on July 5, to which the Turkish side responded, were addressing the concerns of the Turkish Cypriots and were within the UNSG framework.
“To my question, whether the final Turkish position at the dinner was renaming the Treaty of Guarantee an Implementation Treaty as well as a permanent presence on the island with a military base, Mr Eide replied that my perception was correct, noting that the Turks wanted to keep their presence on the island for wider geopolitical reasons,” Anastasiades said.
He added that Eide also responded affirmatively to Anastasiades’ question on whether Guterres, after the intervention of Cavusoglu at the dinner, said that he misunderstood the Turkish position on the chapter of security and guarantees.
“To my reference that, during the dinner on July 6, the Turkish foreign minister expressed the view that the Treaty of Guarantee and the right to intervene should remain for 15 years with a review clause, Mr Eide replied that this is true and it is also recorded in the minutes kept by the UN,” he said.
Anastasiades said that he reiterates “the invitation-challenge to the Turkish government to confirm whether what Mr Eide claims is true”.
If Turkey does this, Anastasiades said, “I expressly state that I am ready to continue the efforts at the negotiation table”.
Mavroyiannis had said earlier in the day that the president’s intention to release the minutes he had kept was not a casual act, but because his honour and dignity were being questioned.
