President Akıncı rebuffs reception with German Foreign Minister

President Mustafa Akıncı did not attend a reception in honor of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday night because his request that the two sides be represented at the event on an equal footing was not met satisfactorily.

The reception was hosted by the German Ambassador to Cyprus at the Chateau Status restaurant in the Nicosia buffer zone, and both President Akıncı and the Greek Cypriot Leader Nikos Anastasiades were invited to attend.

In a written statement, Presidential Spokesman Barış Burcu said that, despite a fruitful meeting with Steinmeier earlier in the day, President Akıncı did not consider it proper to attend the reception, much as he would have liked to.

Burcu added that the two communities’ equal status is a “known reality”, and this is also reflected in addressing the two sides.

But despite reminding the German Embassy of this “reality” in advance, a satisfactory response was not forthcoming, the spokesman said.

Burcu said that, according to the information available to the Turkish Cypriot side, Anastasiades would be addressed as the ‘President of the Republic’, and President Akıncı as the ‘Turkish Cypriot leader’.

For this reason, President Akıncı decided not to attend the event.