President Nicos Anastasiades’ decision to invite party leaders to the palace on Saturday for one-on-one 45-minute briefings, instead of convening a collective National Council session, sparked outrage among them on Monday, though all grudgingly pledged to attend.
The only exception to the flurry of statements criticising Anastasiades was main opposition Akel, which, despite the ideological chasm between it and ruling Disy has been supportive of his efforts all along.
“We consider the fact that the process continues and that steps in the right direction have been made is positive,” Akel general-secretary Andros Kyprianou said.
“We support the ongoing talks. We believe it is important for this process to yield positive results.
Diko spokesman Athos Antoniades said Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci is continuing on the path of the Turkish side, by demanding that the Greek Cypriot side be blamed for the one-week break in the talks, and by “attempting to create an environment of asphyxiating pressure on the Greek Cypriot side”.
“In addition, the occupation leader seeks to cause turmoil, by publicly claiming that the Greek Cypriot side has expressed understanding to the Turkish demand for rotating presidency, as well as veto powers for the Turkish Cypriot component state at all levels of governance,” he said.
The party said that Anastasiades’ decision for individual sessions with party leaders “effectively abolishes” the National Council, “forbids any constructive dialogue”, and “eliminates any chance at collective consultation and strategising”.
“The President’s decision unfortunately raises reasonable suspicion that he plans to tell each leader different things, and that he wants to avoid undertaking any commitment before the National Council,” Diko said.
Socialist Edek also complained, but fell short of assigning suspicious motives.
“For briefing and discussion to be done on a bilateral level, instead of a comprehensive and collective consultation, and scheduling it on the day that parliament has planned to discuss the Cyprus problem is disrespectful to the legislature,” leader Marinos Sizopoulos said.
Calling on Anastasiades to revisit his decision and convene the National Council, Sizopoulos warned that, otherwise, “the president and his associates will bear sole responsibility for any problems that arise, as well as any public confrontations there may be”.
The Citizens’ Alliance vice-president Stelios Stylianou said the party will show up for its allotted 45 minutes, but nonetheless questioned the decision.
“We believe the National Council must be convened,” he said.
“Since its inception, the National Council has been the body that facilitated collective consultation on our national issue.”
Solidarity movement leader Eleni Theocharous wondered how it was possible to discuss a five-party or multi-party conference when the Turkish Cypriots, through their own fault, “are not ready to implement the acquis communautaire and adopt the euro”.
“Could it be to vindicate the technocratic evaluations in Brussels, which aim at avoiding the presidential elections of 2018 [in the Republic of Cyprus], effectively prematurely disbanding the Republic of Cyprus?”
In a statement, the Greens said Anastasiades should convene the National Council and “forget about individual meetings”.
“We suspect he prefers one-on-one meetings in order to avoid making a collective decision,” the party said.
However, its leader Giorgos Perdikis said later, “my personal view is that we should attend, although it would be more appropriate and productive to hold a National Council session, irrespective of whether individual sessions are held or not”.
Meanwhile, after being briefed by Anastasiades on the current state of play, Archbishop Chrysostomos on Monday said he was “more optimistic”, but warned that it calls for “good negotiation”.
An outspoken hardliner on the Cyprus problem, Chrysostomos last week decried what he felt were excessive concessions made to Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriot side, and said he did not believe agreement was very likely.
“We exchanged some views [with Anastasiades],” he said on Monday.
“I can say that I am more optimistic now, but it’s going to take good negotiation.”
