Very little is being said and done on the international stage over the islamization of the north, President Nicos Anastasiades said in an interview, days before Turkey goes to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Speaking to Lifo.gr, a Greek publication, Anastasiades said the crux of the matter in Turkey’s is that whoever is elected, the rhetoric needs to be changed.

“The question is whether (the new president) is willing to change the current status quo which does not benefit his country and more specifically, does not benefit Turkish Cypriots.”

At the moment Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has a rhetoric which poses danger, Anastasiades said.

“If his version is the revival of the Ottoman Empire by 2023 then we’re speaking of dangerous games here. However, I believe rhetoric is one thing and political action is another.”

In the interview, Anastasiades said a lot would depend on the relations Erdogan maintains with Europe, the US and Russia.

Anastasiades said he was gravely concerned over policies islamizing the north, for instance how imams are appointed “is a direct intervention in the interior matters of the Turkish Cypriot community.”

Additionally, more mosques are being built in the north, new religious schools keep cropping up and this is a course of behaviour Turkish Cypriots never did.

“They completely identified with a secular state and although they are Muslim, they were always moderate without being fanatic. So all of these facts are worrying.”

Asked by the journalist John Pantazopoulos to comment on a lack of international reaction over the north’s apparent islamization, Anastasiades said it was “unfortunate”.

“Russia’s policy is to distance Turkey from allies, Europe has economic interests, it has investments and also the risk of refugee flows. The US do not want to lose a strategic partner. Turkey is currently taking advantage of this.”

However if Turkey ploughs on with its current policy to attack and experiment with alliances, “this will create a negative climate for Turkey” Anastasiades said.

Asked to comment if an opportunity had been lost during the talks in Crans-Montana last year, the President re-iterated what he has always said that for the first time, parameters set forth by the UN secretary general had been accepted.

The talks were led to an end due to Turkish intransigence, Anastasiades said.

Cyprus’ fate should be set by Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and to that end “we wanted an end to guarantees, intervention rights,” and the troops that would remain even within the timeframe of their withdrawal.

“The efforts sunk so that Cyprus wouldn’t turn into a protectorate of Turkey.”

Nonetheless, Anastasiades said it was unacceptable at the moment to consider a solution other than a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

Over natural gas, the President said at no point in time had they said it all belonged to Greek Cypriots but to everyone legally residing in the country – including Turkish Cyprios.

Source: http://cyprus-mail.com/2018/06/22/anastasiades-voices-concern-over-islamization-in-north/

Anastasiades wins run-off

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades won a second five-year term on Sunday as voters gave a thumbs-up to his record in containing an economic meltdown in 2013 and his attempts to reconcile with estranged Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically-split island.

With all votes counted, the conservative had 56 percent of the vote against 44 percent for the leftist-backed Stavros Malas.

“A new day dawns tomorrow which requires unity, because that is required to move forward,” Anastasiades told cheering crowds in downtown Nicosia. “I will continue to be a president for all Cypriots. Tonight, there are no winners or losers, there is (only) a Cyprus for all of us.”

Anastasiades, 71, steered the Cypriot economy to recovery after it was plunged into crisis in 2013, days after he was first elected, by its exposure to debt-racked Greece and by fiscal slippage under a previous left-wing administration.

Cyprus emerged from a bailout programme from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in 2016. Unlike other austerity programmes, the Cyprus model put most of the painful measures up front, including recapitalising banks by seizing uninsured deposits, a so-called ‘bail-in’ – used in the euro zone for the first time.

Malas, a geneticist who served as health minister in the former leftist administration, had also come second to Anastasiades in 2013.

Political analyst Hubert Faustmann said Anastasiades had entered the race as favourite in a field of relatively uninspiring candidates, adding: “He handled the economic crisis very well, he got a lot of credit for that.”

As leader of the island’s Greek Cypriot community, Anastasiades oversaw peace talks with the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot controlled north.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup, and has one of the world’s longest-serving peacekeeping forces.

Peace talks collapsed last year over the role that Turkey could play in a post-settlement Cyprus.

Anastasiades faced criticism from Greek Cypriot political rivals for either offering too many concessions to Turkish Cypriots, or for missing one of the best chances in a generation to solve the logjam – a view that Malas supported.

Despite ideological differences, however, both candidates were viewed as being more pro-settlement than adversaries eliminated in the first round of voting on Sept. 28.

“There are two narratives in the Greek Cypriot community: one that he bears responsibility for the failure of talks and the other – that Turkish intransigence is responsible. It’s apparently the second which prevailed,” Faustmann said.

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to Nicos Anastasiades on his re-election as President of the Republic of Cyprus, wishing him robust health and every success in the high mission of president, the press department of the office of Armenian President reported.

“Armenia is keen to continue strengthening the Armenian-Cypriot interstate relations in both bilateral and multilateral formats, based on common values and warm ties between our peoples. Of course, our relationship can be promoted through reciprocated high-level contacts and active political dialogue which have become a good tradition between our countries.

I am confident that we will continue to work in the same spirit and advance the mutually beneficial cooperation for the sake of our countries and peoples,” reads the message.

Anastasiades voices concern over islamization in north

Cyprus president Anastasiades wins run-off to land second term, Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message