The future of UN-backed Cyprus reunification talks hung in the balance on Friday as rival Cypriot leaders rowed over who was at fault for walking out of their negotiations. Although UN envoy Espen Barth Eide has voiced confidence that a meeting next Thursday will go ahead as scheduled, the climate of trust between the sides has deteriorated.
Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci on Friday engaged in a war of words over the previous day's walkout. The peace talks between the rival leaders on long-divided Cyprus broke up in acrimony over a 1950 referendum. Eide said it was Akinci who stormed off but the Turkish Cypriot leader on Friday accused the UN diplomat of "hiding half of the truth".
"Eide should not come to the situation of having the trust towards him questioned by saying one half of the truth and hiding the other," Akinci told reporters. He insists that Anastasiades left the room first, slamming the door behind him. Anastasiades has denied this and his spokesman squarely blamed Akinci, in what he branded a "pre-determined act". When asked about the next scheduled meeting, Akinci suggested there were more serious issues at stake.
"Our expectation is for the climate of trust, which had been shaken, to be fixed. Some steps should be taken on this issue," he said. With feelings running high, Anastasiades issued his own statement to try to set the record straight. "I do not wish, in any way, to engage in an unnecessary blame game, especially after the public explanation" by the UN envoy, said the Greek Cypriot leader.
"I call on the Turkish Cypriot leader to be present at the next meeting so that through a constructive dialogue." Tensions have soared over the February 10 approval by the Greek Cypriot parliament for schools in the south to mark the 1950 referendum on "Enosis," or union with Greece.
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