Reports of Cyprob division between Tatar and Erdogan

If Turkey’s stance on the Cyprus problem has changed it will be determined in practice, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Tuesday, commenting on the impromptu visit of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel to Istanbul.

Reports on Monday suggested that Tatar and Ustel had been summoned by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to be told to keep quiet about anything Cyprus problem related.

However, Tatar had gone on record to deny these claims saying he sought the meeting with Erdogan.

The website Bugun Kibris, quoting sources in Ankara said Tatar was told to limit his comments, because he has made many statements on the Cyprus problem and following an unnecessary line on the issue.

According to the report, the Turkish Cypriot leader was apparently told that the Cyprus issue would be discussed between Turkey and Greece, and he was warned to not make statements “that could tie him up”.

Commenting further on the meeting in Istanbul, Letymbiotis said he hoped there would be some changes in the Turkish positions, when the UN envoy comes and begins to meet all involved.

He added that it is a matter of days before the official announcement of the appointment of the new envoy is made.

According to the report in Bugun Kibris, Ustel was also warned not to make statements about money laundering in the north.

“Tatar and Ustel were urgently summoned to Istanbul. The meeting, which was closed doors […] was tense.”

The meeting stressed that northern Cyprus is behind all the black money and mafia crackdown operations carried out by Turkey’s new interior minister and the issue of Unal Ustel’s indirect links to some of them was put on the agenda.

“A decisive stance on this issue was required,” the newspaper reported according to their sources.

On Monday, Tatar had also chosen to comment on media reports in the state-controlled areas, which claimed Erdogan had invited President Nikos Christodoulides to Ankara for a visit.

Tatar denied the reports that have been circulating in the media for the past week.

He said he had asked Erdogan about the rumours, and that Erdogan had flatly denied them. “No such invitation had been made,” Tatar said.

“I don’t think such a meeting would be possible.”

Reporters also asked Tatar about the lack of forewarning about the meeting.

“Maybe the meeting took place quickly, but we had sent a request for a meeting. We were expecting it to take place after Erdogan met [Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos] Mitsotakis in Greece,” Tatar said.

In the state-controlled areas, the government had spent the week skirting the subject of the ‘Erdogan invite’.

Christodoulides last week said he would visit Erdogan, if he was invited.

“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.