It’s all ‘gossip’, says government

The government yesterday rubbished Turkish Cypriot reports that President Nicos Anastasiades had walked out of the peace talks on Thursday as “unjustifiable gossip”, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said reports of Anastasiades banging his hand on the negotiating table, throwing his glasses down and storming out were mere “gossip” that bore no relation to reality and were “unjustifiable”.

He put the reports down to “weakness” and “embarrassment” on the part of the Turkish Cypriot negotiating team, who were not able to respond to the president’s arguments.

Greek Cypriot sources confirmed that the meeting was “difficult” and had its fair share of ups and downs, but that reports of drama were “exaggerated”. They noted one positive, that all positions on the key aspects of a solution have now been tabled by each side.

Sources told the Mail that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu had rejected three proposals by Anastasiades to document and lock down convergences between the two sides before entering phase three of the talks, the give-and-take process. Eroglu also reportedly refused to accept the Downer document, which lists convergences reached between 2008 and 2012 under the Demetris Christofias government.

Anastasiades had also refused to adopt it when coming to power in 2013. But a source said yesterday that almost 95 per cent of the current proposals tabled by the Greek Cypriot side are the same as those in past convergences. The main change Anastasiades seeks is to remove the proposal on a rotating presidency because he does not agree with the weighted voting element included in the package.

Two sources close to the talks countered this version of events saying Eroglu never proposed adopting the Downer document. One source maintained that his negotiator, Kudret Ozersay, proposed the exact opposite. He said if one were to study Eroglu’s proposals, excluding the chapters on the EU, Economy and Territory, they would find 29 divergences from the Downer document.

The sources said Turkey is otherwise engaged and, after having reached an agreement on the joint declaration in February, had  left Eroglu to his own devices, adding the hope is they will get more involved after Turkish presidential elections in August.

Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, Ozdil Nami, tried to temper the opposing accounts somewhat, explaining that Anastasiades had not walked out of Thursday’s meeting but left earlier to meet with the Troika. Nami expressed regret for the deadlock, before adding that the Greek Cypriots are to blame for refusing to accept past convergences.

One commentator also involved in the talks told the Cyprus Mail  said: “They tried face-saving measures instead of confidence-building measures, but they couldn’t even do that.”

Another argued it seemed obvious Anastasiades does not want anything to do with Eroglu and is waiting for next year’s elections in the north. “But by the time April comes, much damage will have been done.”

A third commentator likened the talks to Dante’s inferno, saying they had reached the eighth circle of hell, one step before the final level, but could still make it out and even up. “If Thursday’s meeting was a trip in an ambulance, you could say that the patient has made it to the hospital but the outlook is grave.”

Coffeeshop

The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column, Coffeeshop, says the Turks were not very nice about Prez Nik after Thursday’s majestically pointless four-hour meeting with Dervis Eroglu.

In order to deflect attention away from Eroglu’s total negativity, which has been displayed very forcefully since Ankara loosened his leash, his associates leaked information to the Turkish Cypriot press about Nik’s allegedly bad behavior at the meeting.

The prim and proper Turkish Cypriots were shocked because Nik supposedly banged his fist on the table, berated his advisors, scolded the UN, threw his spectacles on the table and stormed out of the meeting. The government spokesman denied there was any truth in the Turkish press reports, but why did he bother. There is nothing wrong with someone losing his temper when throwing the odd tantrum.

In fact we would all have been very proud and happy if Nik became mad enough to throw an ash-tray or a punch at Eroglu, instead of just banging his fist and glasses on the table. I bet his advisors would not have leaked that to the press.