President Nicos Anastasiades accused the Turkish Cypriot side on Wednesday of seeking a pretext to stall peace talks to avoid an overlap with Turkey’s constitutional referendum next month.
“It would have been more honest for (Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci) to have said it’s best to suspend negotiations until the referendum is over,” Anastasiades told Greece’s Skai TV in a television interview.
Turkey will hold a referendum on April 16 on boosting the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Last month the peace talks were abruptly interrupted when MPs decided to have a 1950 Enosis referendum that sought union with Greece honoured in the Republic’s schools, a move that was fiercely criticised by Akinci.
In his interview, Anastasiades conceded that the vote had been “a mistake”, but added: “That shouldn’t be a justification for Akinci to abandon the talks. He was looking for a pretext.”
He added that he was personally distressed that Akinci had abandoned the negotiating process which, however, he believed was very close to an agreement.
He said that as long as he was president he would keep on negotiating “until the very last day”. Turkey’s forthcoming referendum on constitutional changes is a stumbling block for any positive developments on the Cyprus issue right now, he said.
Erdogan was concentrating on how to achieve a “yes” vote in Turkey, Anastasiades said, and was being careful not to alienate the nationalists who are not in favour of a solution to the Cyprus problem. This meant he was not prepared to make the necessary concessions to reignite the talks.
As a result of the deadlock, he said, “many points that we had previously agreed on were suddenly overturned by the Turkish Cypriots”.
“If we continued progressing on the same grounds, and if Turkish Cypriot positions were not altered constantly due to Ankara’s interventions, I strongly believe that an agreement could have been reached”.
He denied that during negotiations he asked for the immediate withdrawal of all Turkish forces from Cyprus, saying that this “was not practically possible”.
“But what our side did ask for, was that the gradual, but steady withdrawal of at least 75 per cent of the forces would start immediately, followed at a further stage by the rest, so that we could finally come to the day when all of us, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, would rid ourselves of the presence of all foreign armies on the island.”
He added, however, that a possible Erdogan victory in the referendum could make him more decisive in contributing towards the solution of the Cyprus problem.
“Turkey has much to gain, namely, in improving and normalising relations with Greece, the EU and Nato, and also in establishing Turkey as an important player in the Mediterranean energy market,” he said.
Anastasiades also said that Turkish vessels would not harass the oil companies drilling off Cyprus as this would mean harming the interests of countries like Italy and France, and now the US as well as negotiations are underway with ExxonMobil.
If the negotiations with Exxon Mobil were completed, he said, this would protect – due to interests – Cyprus’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone.
Turkey warned last year energy companies bidding for offshore Block 6 that any exploratory activity is unauthorised since part of the block lies within the Turkish continental shelf – a claim supported only by Turkey. Turkey’s claims partly overlap with Cyprus’ blocks 1, 4, 6 and 7.
Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General Espen Barth Eide, who met on Wednesday with US officials, said that the country continued its strong support for the negotiation process.
Eide was in Washington to participate in an event of the US think – tank `Atlantic Council` on Wednesday in Washington entitled “Strategic & Sustainable Development for a Unified Cyprus”.
Meanwhile in Brussels, Anastasiades met on Wednesday with the new president of the European parliament Antonio Tajani, while on Thursday he will see the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The president is to participate in the European Council Summit and attend an informal European Council Summit for the Future of Europe.
He is to also attend meetings of the European People’s Party.
