Following a scathing attack by Greece’s Foreign Minister where he was accused of acting like Turkey’s rep, United Nations Special Adviser for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide has defended his position.
After a meeting on Monday with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades Eide said the Cyprus issue is ‘’complex’’ and that the UN remains committed to assisting the two sides on Cyprus, whenever its help was requested.
Eide also confirmed reports that he intends to resign his post as envoy in order to participate in the general elections in Norway, saying he will try to prepare his successor.
Eide described his meeting with Anastasiades as “very open and constructive” and later met with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.
Referring to the collapse of the Crans Montana conference, the envoy noted that the process had provided all parties involved with “food for thought” even though it did not lead to the desired result. He also insisted that Turkey had accepted the abolition of the guarantees system but not the immediate withdrawal of the occupation troops.
In statements regarding the meeting later on Monday, Cyprus government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said that Anastasiades had lodged a “stern demarche” to the envoy regarding his public statements about the Crans Montana conference and why the talks failed.
The spokesman let it be understood that Anastasiades had warned Eide that he would release the minutes of the talks if “similar statements are repeated” in order to show what really happened.
“If there is insistence on such positions, for which there is no confirmation of this approach through the answers to very specific questions made by the President…then the minutes must be made public so everyone knows exactly what happened at Crans Montana,” he said.
The Cyprus government was waiting to see what will happen in the next few days in addition to the UN Secretary General’s report, Christodoulides said, but refused to be more specific. In order for the talks to continue, he added, Turkey must understand that “Cyprus must become a normal state, as the UN Secretary General said.”
“When the UN Secretary General, after a discussion of four hours and more, started to write down the strategic agreement that everyone hoped to achieve in Switzerland, after the first reference relating to the end of the guarantee treaty and intervention rights, there was a reaction from [Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut] Cavusoglu. And there were many people at the dinner that heard Mr. Cavusoglu’s reaction, that something of the sort cannot be implemented from the first day,” Christodoulides said.
