Akinci says legitimacy of Turkish Cypriot leader not up for discussion

The authority and democratic legitimacy of the elected Turkish Cypriot leader was not up for discussion, Mustafa Akinci said on Thursday, after suggestions that Ankara wanted him excluded from talks with the Greek Cypriots.

“The authority and democratic legitimacy of the Turkish Cypriot president who is elected by the Turkish Cypriot people, whom the UN and other international players know and talk with, and who is regarded the leader of the Turkish Cypriots for many years is not up for discussion,” Akinci said in a written statement.

He said the long-accepted parameters of the Cyprus problem include talks between the leaders of the two communities on all issues that concern them.

His statement followed Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides’ disclosure on Wednesday that Ankara was pushing for talks between the two sides but with ‘foreign minister’ Kudret Ozersay and not Akinci.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said any effort to replace the communal and international role and authority of the Turkish Cypriot ‘president’ with a person who was not authorised by the people was a hostile action.

Akinci said the two sides had set up technical committees to handle various issues because contacts between ministries were not feasible under the current conditions.

“That is the reason the health ministers could not even meet over the pandemic crisis. It is impossible for the foreign ministers to meet on equal terms,” he said.

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.