Roundup: Cypriot president cancels peace meeting, cuts short Turkey visit

Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades canceled peace talks with the Turkish Cypriot leader scheduled for Friday and a preparatory meeting with a UN official, and cut short a visit to Turkey in anger over what he considered as a breach of protocol at a UN summit in Istanbul, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Anastasiades was paying a rare visit for a Cypriot official to Turkey to attend the UN summit on poverty and humanitarian assistance.

But he left Istanbul one day earlier after refusing to attend a dinner for heads of state on Monday evening after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan invited Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, who presents himself as president of a breakaway state in the occupied part of Cyprus, to attend the dinner.

"The invitation to Akinci was a ploy by Turkey to upgrade the status of the pseudo-state," Christodoulides said, referring to the breakaway state Turkey set up in the northern part of Cyprus it occupied in 1974, in reaction to a short-lived coup by the military rulers of Greece.

Christodoulides implicitly blamed the UN Secretary General's emissary in Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, for the embarrassing development and also for arranging a meeting between Akinci and the Secretary General in Istanbul.

He added that under the circumstances Anastasiades decided to cancel a meeting with Eide scheduled for Thursday.

Eide, who was also in Istanbul, was reported to have telephoned Anastasiades on Monday night telling him that Akinci had arrived earlier in the day and would attend the dinner.

"Then have a nice dinner, I'll not be there," Anastasiades was quoted by a reliable source as telling the UN official.

He also said Anastasiades, in deciding to cancel his meeting with Akinci felt that "there was no fertile ground" to go ahead with the session.

But he stressed that Anastasiades is not discontinuing the peace negotiations with the Turkish Cypriot Community.

"The President of the Republic repeats his decisiveness to continue the dialogue provided that the principle of mutual respect and the jointly expressed will to find a mutually acceptable solution are observed, without one-sided moves which aim at upgrading the pseudo-state," Christodoulides said.

"Such actions from any party, not excluding the United Nations special envoy for the Cyprus problem undermine the peace process," said Christodoulides.

The row is an indication of the sensitivities and complexities bedeviling efforts to end the four-decade old Cyprus problem, the second longest-running international problem on the UN agenda after the Middle East issue.

Anastasiades was scheduled to leave Istanbul on Wednesday morning but he left prematurely early on Tuesday evening for Athens.

He will meet on Wednesday with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who will brief him on talks he had with Erdogan on Cyprus.

Tsipras also did not attend the dinner but an explanation was given that he was in continuous consultation with EU officials on the Greek bailout crisis.

A UN spokesman in Nicosia said Eide is expected back in Cyprus on Wednesday.

But he refused to confirm that his meeting with Anastasiades on Thursday has been cancelled, saying "currently there is not a scheduled meeting with Anastasiades."

Akinci, who returned to Cyprus on Tuesday, said there has been an over-reaction to his presence at the dinner.

He added that he saw no reason for the cancellation of the negotiations with Anastasiades on Friday. Endit