The climate between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders deteriorated dramatically on Wednesday when a meeting, originally scheduled for Thursday, was cancelled after Akinci refused to attend.
“Unfortunately, we have just been informed by the UN that, due to the Turkish Cypriot leader’s refusal to attend, tomorrow’s scheduled meeting will not take place,” government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides tweeted on Wednesday morning.
The meeting had been up in the air for days, following a tumultuous similar meeting last week, when an irate Anastasiades was said to have stormed out of the room to have a cigarette, a move Akinci found disrespectful enough for him to depart the meeting altogether.
“I regret Mr Akinci’s decision to not attend tomorrow’s meeting,” Anastasiades tweeted later.
“I stand ready to resume the dialogue at any time.”
The United Nations’ Special Representative for Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, had undertaken a conciliatory assignment on Tuesday, meeting with Akinci and Anastasiades, but her efforts failed.
“I spoke with Mr Akinci [on Tuesday] and just met with Mr Anastasiades,” she said on Wednesday morning.
“I will be speaking shortly with our special advisor, Mr Eide, and so I have nothing to say for the moment.”
After Anastasiades’ meeting with Spehar, Christodoulides referred to a “very negative development”.
“Unfortunately Mrs Spehar informed the president that Mr Akinci will not be attending tomorrow’s meeting,” he said.
“The president expressed his regret for this development and reiterated his readiness to resume substantive talks on the remaining issues.”
According to the government’s assessment, Christodoulides added, the crisis was because the Turkish demands on the issues of security and guarantees were not being accepted, not only by the Greek Cypriots but also by the international community.
“At the same time, there are developments within Turkey,” he said.
“We all saw the country’s prime minister [on Tuesday] in the Turkish parliament giving the sign of the Grey Wolves [Turkish ultra-nationalists]. You realise the importance of the nationalist vote in the upcoming [constitutional] referendum.”
The recent tension between the two leaders was caused by a vote in the House of Representatives earlier this month, to introduce into public schools a short annual commemoration of the 1950 referendum among Greek Cypriots for Enosis – or the island’s union – with Greece.
Turkish Cypriots found the move provocative and Akinci said as much, repeatedly blaming Anastasiades and Disy, the party he formerly led, for abstaining from the vote which effectively allowed the proposal – tabled by far-right Elam and backed by hardline parties – to pass.
Efforts by Anastasiades to assuage the Turkish Cypriot leader’s concerns were met with Akinci’s insistence that the decision be repealed.
Despite pledging not to be dragged into a prolonged blame-game following last Thursday’s aborted meeting, Anastasiades was exasperated by joint remarks from Akinci and Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday.
“Patience has its limits,” the president declared.
He had publicly conceded that the parliament’s move had been wrong, but argued that the decision was immaterial in the context of the talks, as the stated objective remained a bizonal, bicommunal federation, not union with Greece.
News of the cancellation came hours after Disy, in a bid to salvage the situation, tabled a legislative amendment removing the power to determine public-school commemorations from the House and bestowing it to the education ministry, thus opening the way for the government to repeal the decision.
But it seems the proposal was too little, too late for Akinci.
Initial reaction from the Turkish Cypriot side came from Akinci’s spokesman Baris Burcu, who said they are expecting “concrete steps, politically and administratively” for the wrong decision on Enosis to be corrected.
Burcu added that during his meeting with Spehar on Tuesday, Akinci conveyed his thoughts that Anastasiades’ attitude towards this “unfortunate development” was insufficient, and expected him to “take the necessary steps”.
Later, Akinci offered his own remarks in response to the Greek Cypriot side.
The Turkish Cypriot leader blamed Anastasiades for further shattering hopes for the future through the attitude he had displayed since last week.
He said the Greek Cypriot side was not consenting to fill in the details on the subject of Turkish Cypriots’ “effective participation”.
Akıncı added that the Greek Cypriot side thought that simple majority votes of the Greek Cypriots was enough to adopt decisions and didn’t accept that at least one Turkish Cypriot on every government decision-making body should agree.
On the Enosis decision, Akinci said that “instead of correcting the mistake, the Greek Cypriot side is continuing to accuse us and claim that we are creating excuses in order not to negotiate”.
On Anastasiades’ claim that he hadn’t left the talks after similar provocations, Akıncı said that Anastasiades had protested and left the negotiation table last year, when he attended a dinner hosted by the Turkish president and met with the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
“But he doesn’t want to remember that he continued his meaningless attitude for days and that the negotiation table was reset with the patient and solution target of the Turkish Cypriots,” said Akinci.
“It is the Turkish Cypriot side which is running out of patience against these negativities and what took place on February 16 was the last straw.”
He said the propaganda machine was saying that the reason for the Turkish Cypriot side’s action was because of the referendum in Turkey but that was simply not true.
“Turkey did not present such a demand,” said Akinci, adding that “it was Greece who wanted the conference to be postponed in Geneva, not Turkey”.
