Turkish Cypriot leader: Greek side not constructive


Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı said Wednesday that Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades had rejected his proposal for a new Cyprus conference in Geneva "without preconditions," and accused him of failing to come up with a constructive proposal.

Speaking to media after a five-hour meeting at the U.N.-administered buffer zone in Lefkosa, Akıncı said, "The proposal we made today for a Geneva meeting in June without any preconditions was rejected by the Greek Cypriot leader."

Akıncı accused Anastasiades of not being constructive or creative in reaching a deal.

"Today the Greek Cypriot leader did not come up with a constructive or creative offer. Offering unacceptable preconditions under the name of a constructive and creative proposal will not lead to a resolution," he said.

The Turkish Cypriot president was of the opinion that the only way to solve the Cyprus issue was by discussing and finalizing all pending issues at a single conference in Geneva, instead of discussing each item separately.

"If we want a solution, then there is no other alternative left as we have tried all other methods," he said.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had phone conversations with Özdil Nami, who conducts negotiations on behalf of Turkish Cypriots, and Espen Barth Eide, the U.N. General Secretariat's special consultant on Cyprus.

According to the diplomatic resources, they discussed the latest situations within the negotiation process after the leaders' meeting that took placed in the buffer zone.Akıncı and Anastasiades met at the U.N. buffer zone in Cyprus under the framework of reunification talks of the long-divided island.

The ongoing talks had experienced a two-month hiatus due to the Greek Cypriot assembly's decision to introduce a school commemoration of the 1950 Enosis referendum on unification with Greece.

However, with Greek-Cypriots shelving the enosis decision, the talks restarted on April 11. The latest meeting between the negotiators on Tuesday lasted nine hours.