Cyprus Mail: “National Council has outlived any sort of usefulness”

Greek Cypriot daily Cyprus Mail newspaper criticised the leaking of National Council documents to the press in today’s edition. The content of the news also includes intense criticism against the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades. According to news of the Cyprus Mail, it is very difficult to take the National Council seriously, despite its long existence and its important mission to offer advice to Anastasiades on the Cyprus problem. The article continued as:

“Monday’s leaking of a document outlining the Greek Cypriot positions in the ongoing talks, a few hours after it had been given to the members of the Council by Anastasiades, was just another argument in favour of scrapping it.

When its members cannot even be trusted to respect the Anastasiades’ request for confidentiality, there is no justification for keeping it going. Anastasiades had distributed the document he had read to the UN Secretary General at their meeting in Davos, to the leaders during Monday’s meeting on the understanding that it was kept confidential as it contained information about his positions on a range of issues.”

The newspaper also stated that the leaking of National Council documents is nothing new and it has been common practice for decades and added that when Glafcos Clerides was the leader, documents were given with partially differentiated text in order to catch the person responsible for the leaks.

According to the news, more recently, Anastasiades allowed representatives of the parties to read documents from the talks but under strict rules. An official from the Greek Cypriot government was with them and they were not allowed to photograph any pages with their phone or even take notes. These are the type of rules usually imposed.

The article continued as: “Does Anastasiades really need advisors he cannot trust to respect confidentiality? The answer is no and, as it was argued many times in the past, it is absurd for him to consult, let alone seek advice of, party leaders that have a completely different objective. Needless to say that the whole episode degenerated into farce, with several opposition parties accusing Anastasiades of being behind the leaking of the document, which he could use as an excuse not to call another meeting of the council and keep the party leaders in the dark about the talks.”

According to the article the Greek Cypriot Government immediately denied these allegations, but contributed to the general absurdity by asking the two websites, which had been given copies of the document, to reveal their source or, at least, confirm that they had not received the copies from the government. Their refusal to do this meant the government remained one of the suspects.

The article concludes as: “What else needs to happen for Anastasiades to realise that the National Council has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any, other than to create an impression of political unity that never existed.”