“I believe that the Greek Cypriots can abandon their bad attitude towards the talks, but there is one condition for that; the international community and the UN must issue a warning to the Greek Cypriots over their stance” said President Mustafa Akıncı last week.

Speaking at an event, President Akıncı gave his evaluation of the developments on the Cyprus issue. Akıncı said that the Greek Cypriot side and media is engaging in games to portray the Turkish Cypriot leader and Turkey as guilty.

President Akıncı repeated that the preconditions offered by the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades to discuss the Security and Guarantees and Territory chapters before moving to  other outstanding issues is out of question. He added that this proposal entirely contradicts the Geneva Joint Declaration on 12 January and 11 February 2014.

Emphasizing that the Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades is running out of time due to the Greek Cypriot presidential elections to be held in 2018, Akıncı said, “If winning the election becomes more important than finding a solution, we have nothing more to say at that point.”

President Akıncı emphasized that the Turkish Cypriot side is ready to go to Geneva, but that achieving a result can only be made possible by discussing all issues.

President Akıncı spoke to the leaders of the political parties represented at the TRNC Assembly, and informed them that the shuttle diplomacy running by UN Special Envoy Eide was unsuccessful as a result of the preconditions of the Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades.