Anastassiades to meet Erdogan in Ankara

DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades will meet Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during a visit to Ankara between February 9 and 13, the party announced yesterday.

According to a statement, DISY, which was invited last month by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) for a meeting as part of the Turkish party’s contact with the European People’s Party, will have discussions under those auspices.

The DISY delegation, led by Anastassiades, will be met by Gul in Ankara on February 10. The following day it will meet the AKP leadership, and on February 12 hold talks with Erdogan. Also attending will be the party’s Assistant Chairman Averoff Neophytou, Vice president Socrates Hasikos and spokesman Tassos Mitsopoulos.

“The visit is of political importance as it is the first to include contacts at such a senior political level,” the DISY statement said, adding that the meetings were taking place within a European framework aimed at creating dialogue that could facilitate any policy problems on Turkey’s road to EU accession.

The announcement of the invitation last month caused a minor political storm, with rejectionist parties complaining that DISY was planning to discuss the Cyprus issue with the Turkish side. However, the party made it clear it would not discuss the issue until it had consulted with President Tassos Papadopoulos.

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