Turkish Cypriot leader pulls out of meeting with Cypriot president

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Thursday pulled out of a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in the context of the negotiations for a deal reunifying Cyprus.

State television said that it was not immediate clear whether Akinci simply walked out of the meeting with Anastasiades or he is pulling out of the whole negotiating process.

Anastasiades said after the meeting that he will be issuing a statement within the day.

Akinci had said ahead of the meeting that he would talk only on the issue of a vote in the Cypriot parliament last Friday on an bill amendment instructing teachers in school to make a brief mention of a referendum 67 years ago in which Greek Cypriots almost unanimously voted in favour of Cyprus uniting with Greece.

The so-called "enosis (union) referendum" had provoked an unusually strong reaction by the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey.

Akinci and other Turkish Cypriot politicians, as well as Turkey, have claimed that the vote leads to a revival of centuries-old Greek Cypriot dreams to bring about a union of Cyprus with Greece despite protestations by Anastasiades that it was insignificant.

He had stated that the amendment was approved only by minority parties which aim at preventing a Cyprus solution and that one of the large parties in parliament voted against and the other abstained.

An official statement on Monday restated that the aim of the negotiations is to create a federal state in which Turkish Cypriot will share power with Greek Cypriots. Endit