Akinci will not appoint another negotiator

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Monday urged President Nicos Anastasiades to follow in his second term a more realistic and constructive policy for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.

In a statement on his social media account, Akinci congratulated both Akel-backed independent candidate Stavros Malas for his performance at the elections and Anastasiades for his victory.

“I hope Mr Anastasiades during his second term will follow a more realistic and constructive policy for a comprehensive settlement and peace in Cyprus,” Akinci said.

The Turkish Cypriot leader reiterated on Monday the need for a new approach to the settlement negotiations.

It is for this reason, he said that he was not thinking of appointing anyone as negotiator following the official resignation of Ozdil Nami from the post on Monday.

Akinci praised Nami for his skills and hard work and for contributing so much to the Turkish Cypriot side’s cause in the negotiations. Nami, Akinci said, through consultations with Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot parties, supervised the procedure up to the Conference on Cyprus in Switzerland.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said that he was not thinking of appointing a new negotiator at the moment, as he does not want for negotiations to drag on in the same way for another 50 years.

He added that the Turkish Cypriots will not accept the negotiators of the two sides meeting for endless consultations.

From now on, Akinci said, the Turkish Cypriot side would like a results-oriented procedure and not an open-ended one.

Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said earlier in the day that Anastasiades is to soon convene the National Council or the party leaders to discuss the next steps on the settlement negotiations.

Nami, who served as negotiator since May 2015, resigned the post to assume his new duties as ‘minister’ of Economy and Energy in the new coalition ‘government’ between the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), the People’s Party (HP), the Social Democratic Party (TDP) and the Democratic Party (DP), following elections in the north last month.

 

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.