Crisis at the talks

“Anastasiades has abandoned the negotiating table,” Kibris’ headline read yesterday, echoed by the rest of the Turkish Cypriot press. The paper says that Anastasiades stormed out of the five-hour meeting between the leaders, acting “intransigently and aggressively” on the issue of confidence-building measures and past convergences.

“Anastasiades twice stood up and hit his hand on the table, reprimanded his own delegation, scolded UN officials, and then stormed out of the meeting,” the paper writes.

Sources told the paper that President Anastasiades angrily threw his glasses on the table. They said he had insisted that the convergences of the past should not be binding and should not be on the table.

He reportedly said that the only thing which he accepts that is agreed by the sides is the content of the joint declaration and wouldn’t even approve the eight confidence-building measures agreed last Friday by the negotiators.

Under the headline “Crisis at the talks”, Yeni Duzen reports that the negotiations are deadlocked. It says there were moments of tension at the meeting between the two community leaders, that Anastasiades “could not control his anger, threw his glasses on the table” and then stormed off.

Kibris Postasi writes that President Anastasiades had explained that he was feeling tense because of the negotiations and the Troika’s visit to Cyprus and had asked if he could smoke. The paper says that after chain-smoking three cigarettes, Anastasiades stood up, threw his glasses on the table, gathered his documents and left, leaving the Greek Cypriot delegation behind.

Havadis reports that “the negotiations are in a mess”, that the talks were deadlocked and that the UN is worried about their future. It says Anastasiades reiterated his proposal that a document should be prepared containing all the convergences and divergences, while Erolgu insisted on the acceptance of the “Downer Document”.

Halkin Sesi also reports that Anastasiades abandoned the meeting and notes that “this unexpected action shocked both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot negotiating delegations.”