Talat’s mini-bar bill sent to Republic of Cyprus

THE FORMER Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, may have left office but for the Republic of Cyprus’ Embassy in Spain, his legacy lives on.

According to media reports, Talat failed to pay his hotel and mini bar bill after he visited the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos during his election campaign.

After a two-hour meeting with Moratinos, he allegedly returned to Cyprus via Turkey without paying his bill.

The disgruntled hotel manager then contacted the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Madrid to settle the bill.

Nearchos Palas, Cyprus Ambassador to Spain confirmed that he had received a request from the hotel manager, but sought to play down the incident.

He told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, “The Hotel Manager called us to settle for (Mr Talat’s) expenses after he left, but we told him that we did not make the booking and so it was not our bill to pay.”

Asked about yesterday’s Philelefteros newspaper article, Palas said “I have seen the article. Let us not throw things out of proportion.

“The embassy and I want to stay on the serious side of things and not engage in gossip about mini-bar or phone call expenses.”

He declined to tell the Cyprus Mail which hotel Talat had stayed in, adding “This was just a mistake that anyone in a hotel could make.”

Talat’s aide, Ozdil Nami, said yesterday that hospitality matters during foreign visits are managed differently on each occasion, which can lead to misunderstandings over who is footing the bill.

“I was not a part of this delegation, and so I do not know what the arrangement was,” he added.

Spanish Foreign Ministry representatives were not available for comment yesterday.

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.