Cyprus Talks: Leaders bear their minds on talks so far

Leaders of the divided Cyprus island, Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cyprus president, and Mustafa Akinci, Leader of the Turkish Cypriot side on Thursday met in continuation of reunification talks on the Cyprus problem.

 
Following the meeting, both leaders of the island expressed their thoughts on the talks so far with Anastasiades saying that the meeting was held in a “good climate, but added that it is not enough,” since the goal is to achieve results.

Anastasiades who spoke on the issue of Turkey’s increasing threats said: it (the threat) does not contribute to a creating the “climate we would like.” 

“We cannot be talking about confidence building measures on the one hand and on the other have all these threats on the part of Turkey,” he said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Akinci on his part said that Thursday's meeting focused on two issues: the decisive participation in the decision making bodies of federal governance and the issue of “equal handling of Turkish and Greek citizens.” 

According to Akinci, both issues can be solved in reasonable contexts.

Akinci also said that the “reasonable opinions” of the Turkish Cypriot side were better understood by the EU and the UN than by the Greek Cypriot side.