LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
The president of Northern Cyprus on Wednesday said peace talks were “nonsense” if the island’s Greek Cypriot administration persisted with plans to mark “Enosis” or the idea of Cyprus being annexed by Greece.
Last week, the Greek Cypriot parliament voted to introduce a yearly public school commemoration of a 1950 referendum in which Greek Cypriots voted overwhelmingly for Athens to take over the island.
The move sparked outrage from Turkish Cypriots. On Tuesday, a meeting between Turkish and Greek Cypriot negotiators was canceled due to the controversial move.
“If the Greek Cypriot parliament does not fix this decision, the negotiation process will be nonsense from now on,” President Mustafa Akinci told reporters in Lefkosa on Wednesday.
Akinci said the decision caused public indignation and insecurity in the Turkish Cypriot community. He said Cyprus needed confidence-building measures while peace talks between the two sides were still ongoing.
He also called on Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades to take immediate steps to halt the Enosis bill.
Akinci also said that efforts to regularize cellphones on both sides of the divided island could not be implemented due to a Greek Cypriot law.
Akinci said Cypriot Turks’ main objective was a federal solution but claimed the Enosis incident had negatively affected negotiations.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday slammed the Enosis plans which it blamed on a “Greek Cypriot mentality which refuses to accept the Turkish Cypriots as co-owners of the island”.
The eastern Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after a 1974 military coup was followed by the intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power.
The issue of reunification of Cyprus remains unsolved despite a series of discussions which resumed in May 2015.
The main goal is to find a political solution as the sides seek to reunify the island under a federal system after more than 40 years of division.
Reporting by Murat Demirci; Writing by Handan Kazanci
