Brussels, 28/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 27 February, the Greek Cypriot negotiator, Andreas Mavroyiannis, and the Turkish negotiator, Kudret Özersay, met in Ankara as part of the negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus. Before the meetings, Turkey's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu described the meetings as “historic”, as did the permanent mission of Cyprus to the United Nations.
The spokesperson for the Cypriot government, Christos Stylianides, hoped that many other meetings will follow. “It was a very important meeting”, he said with regard to the meeting between Mavroyiannis in Turkey, and he recalled that this was “the first time that a Cypriot negotiator has arrived in Ankara for such a meeting with Turkish officials”. Mavroyiannis met the ambassador under secretary, Feridun Sinirlioglu, for three and a half hours. For his part, Özersay described his two hour meeting with the secretary general of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anastasis Mitsialis, as “historic and very constructive”, and he stated that the meeting had taken place in quite a warm atmosphere, which he had not expected.
Meanwhile, the Diko party withdrew from the government coalition on 27 February, due to its disagreement with the section of the framework for the negotiations on Cyprus' reunification. (CG)