”Anastasiades’ grandstanding did not achieve anything”

The Greek Cypriot daily Sunday Mail published on 29th May commented in its editorial once more about Anastasiades’s reaction beginning with the dinner at the UN World Humanitarian Summit in İstanbul.  The newspaper stressed “When it comes to indignant grandstanding and self-righteous posturing our politicians are in their element. They do it very well, even if, ultimately, it is meaningless because it achieves nothing. The Cyprus problem, for decades, has been inspiring these extravagant flourishes of defiance and unrelenting moralising without any sign of a let-up.
If anything, they have been stepped up in recent years as an increasing number of politicians work on the assumption that tough talk on the national issue will eventually push them to the top of the pile.”
The newspaper says that it is disappointing but not surprising to see the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades also engage in this behaviour at the Monday night dinner in İstanbul.
It says Anastasiades could have registered his disapproval by not attending the dinner, but he allowed a free rein to his emotions, engaging in the indignant grandstanding that is the stock in trade of the rejectionist party leaders.
The question we need to ask Cyprus Mail continues is “what Anastasiades hoped to achieve with his knee-jerk reaction?” (Concerning the things happened after the dinner) “Did he want an excuse to abandon the talks now that they would enter the intensive phase? Did he think there was a chance in a million Ban would publicly reprimand his Special Adviser, let alone replace him? Did he want to be applauded by the political parties and the newspapers for his supposedly tough stance? The truth is that he achieved absolutely nothing, having not even prevented the imaginary upgrading of Akinci, who attended the dinner and met Ban. Should he not also have censured Ban – for the sake of consistency if nothing else – for agreeing to the meeting with Akinci, instead of putting all the blame on the Special Adviser?
The editorial ends as follows: “His knee-jerk reaction also showed that he may not have the cool head and mental strength that are essential for the phase the Cyprus talks are currently entering. Will he be able to take the unrelenting pressure and criticism from the parties or will he revert to the default position, witnessed in Istanbul?”
(Cyprus Mail)