Erdogan invite? President avoids direct answer (Updated)

President Nikos Christodoulides said on Thursday he would visit Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, if he was invited, amid a swirling media storm that such an invite had already been made.

“If there was even the slightest possibility for this meeting to occur, all the things being publicised do not help in any way,” Christodoulides said, speaking on the side-lines of the EU Council meeting in Brussels.

“Of course, if I have an invite from Mr Erdogan, I will visit him.”

He added that he had said he would pursue meeting Erdogan, something he said both to him and through third parties.

However, Christodoulides neither confirmed nor denied that an invitation had been extended to him by Erdogan to visit Turkey.

Reacting to the president’s statements, opposition party Akel said: “If Mr Christodoulides wants seriousness [on the matter], then he must answer truthfully if he has or has not received an invitation from Tayyip Erdogan.”

They said instead of having theoretical conversations about the Cyprus problem, it is necessary that a collective discussion be had at the national council.

On Wednesday, Alithia newspaper ran a front page saying that diplomatic sources in Greece had confirmed to them that Erdogan had indeed invited Christodoulides.

According to the newspaper, the matter was raised during the Turkish president’s visit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last week.

With this information circulating through the media, a political storm was caused, with the head of the Disy party, Annita Demetriou and the presidential palace exchanging a series of letters calling for a meeting of the national council – the body of political leaders in Cyprus tasked with discussing all Cyprus problem-related issues.

“Also, for such serious matters, political leaders and institutions cannot be informed by the mass media, such as today’s information about the Turkish president’s invitation to the president of the Republic to visit Ankara,” Demetriou said.

She called for the national council to be called, so that they can be informed about the developments.

“Precisely, the national council is the body in which there can be correct and timely information, the exchange of opinions and assessments, as well as the collective handling of issues concerning our national problem,” she added.

The government had originally wanted to keep the matter quiet, and Christodoulides was even annoyed by Demetriou’s letter calling for the national council to convene.

On Wednesday, the government had refused to comment on the matter, and when pressed by the media, Christodoulides representatives skirted the subject.

The deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou, speaking on the TV station Omega, said: “The president, as the government spokesman had also stated [previously], had a brief conversation with the president of Turkey on the sidelines of the climate summit in Dubai. We can’t say too much. If the president of Turkey sends an invitation to the president of the Republic to go to Turkey, we have a drastic change in Turkish policy. I think we are not at that point at the moment. There was a discussion, I don’t want to expand on this issue.”

Antoniou proceeded to repeat this narrative in all his interventions on television on Wednesday, in an effort to signal that the matter should be downplayed.

He said that it would be a complete change in Turkey’s policy towards Cyprus if such an invitation was extended, considering Ankara’s policy toward the government-controlled areas.

However, then came Demetriou’s statement in which she called out the government for not informing the political leadership.

Attempting to cast doubt on Demetriou, the government questioned whether she believed Erdogan invited Christodoulides.

Demetriou said that the national council should be convened at regular intervals to be informed on any developments, a position which Akel general-secretary Stefanos Stefanou also expressed a few days ago.

However, despite pressure from the country’s two biggest political parties, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis weighed in and said: “The president will convene the national council if and when the conditions and developments are such that it is deemed necessary or critical.”

He added the government has convened the national council twice so far, and that the political leadership has been thoroughly informed.

Disy immediately reacted to Letymbiotis’ positioning, with the party’s spokesman Onofourios Koullas said that there is a different perception between the government and political forces on the notion of the collective spirit.

He added that the national council cannot be limited to receiving information after “developments and fact change”.

“In the national council, there must be a timely assessment of the developments under development, there should be an exchange of opinions between all members and collective procedures. Institutional placements cannot be replaced by personal telephone communications,” he said.

A similar proposal had previously been made back in 2014, when Nicos Anastasiades was president and Dervis Eroglu was the Turkish Cypriot leader. Back then the proposal had been for Anastasiades to visit Ankara as the Greek Cypriot community leader and Eroglu to visit Athens as the Turkish Cypriot community leader.