Mavroyannis: Turkey Responsible for Crans Montana Collapse; Blaming Anastasiadis a “Turkish Story”

Mavroyannis, who participated in the Crans Montana negotiations and has years of experience in Cyprus conflict diplomacy, commented following remarks by Anastasiadis last week regarding former EU Commissioner Christos Stylianides. Anastasiadis had claimed that Stylianides had criticized his actions in the EU College of Commissioners concerning the Cyprus negotiations and reportedly told Federica Mogherini that Anastasiadis’s statements were inaccurate, based on briefings from Turkey’s Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and that the situation was different from what Anastasiadis presented.

“Claims that Anastasiadis ‘fled’ the Crans Montana talks are baseless and groundless—a Turkish story,” Mavroyannis said during a radio program, as reported by Fileleftheros. He added that some were trying to shift responsibility for the Crans Montana failure onto Anastasiadis. Despite tensions and disagreements with Stylianides, Mavroyannis emphasized that he respects and appreciates him.

“The failure was due to Turkey,” Mavroyannis continued, arguing that while many believe the blame lies with the Greek Cypriot side, the real reason the talks collapsed was the refusal of Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to accept two of the six points of the Guterres framework and to lift the guarantees.

Stylianides, meanwhile, has called for the publication of the official records of his statements in the College of Commissioners and stated that he has not commented on the Crans Montana outcome within the framework of “political responsibility” to date.