President Christodoulides stated the day before yesterday that he would attend the International Climate Summit to be held in Turkey, but did not rule out the possibility of ‘there being surprises from the Turkish side’. We do not know what surprises the President has in mind, but ‘Phileleftheros’, which is in the President’s inner circle, does know and has revealed them: ‘Ankara might also bring Erhürman to Antalya’.
Erdoğan, then, who did not want to invite Christodoulides to Antalya but was forced to do so following the victorious campaign waged by Christodoulides and Kombos’s diplomatic services, may well invite Erhürman too, in order to take the President of Cyprus by surprise – though the latter is not taken aback. As he revealed, he has prepared himself. “We are preparing for any development which, I must tell you, I do not rule out,” he told the ecstatic journalists listening to him.
What no one can understand is why Erdogan would want to spring such a surprise on our president, given that, as he revealed to the Greek Cypriot journalists who rushed to wish him for his nameday (6 December) in 2023, the Turkish president invited him – and not the Turkish Cypriot leader – to go to Turkey to discuss a solution to the Cyprus problem. Mr Christodoulides explained that he rejected the proposal because he is not just ‘any old Nikos’, but the President of the Republic of Cyprus. And it is only in that capacity that he would accept an invitation to Turkey.
Since then, Tayyip Erdoğan has not invited Mr Christodoulides to Turkey again, although talks between Ankara and the President of Cyprus on a solution to the Cyprus problem remained on the agenda. Talks between the Cypriot president and Erdogan himself, or with the Foreign Minister, took place in Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Albania and Hungary. Most recently, he also met with the Turkish Vice-President in Paris.
On 27 March 2025, the deputy government spokesperson posted a photograph of the Turkish Vice-President with the President of the Republic of Cyprus and informed us that Mr Christodoulides had had a brief conversation with the Turkish Vice-President shortly before the summit convened by Macron in Paris on Ukraine. Later that same day, President Christodoulides also issued a statement on the matter. “We did indeed have a discussion with the Vice-President of the Turkish Government, mainly regarding developments in our region,” he said. “What was expressed by all sides is the need for a dialogue that will lead us to resolve any differences that may exist.” And he concluded: “I consider it important that a dialogue with the Turkish government has gradually begun. This is something that was not easy to achieve in the past…”.
So? We are engaged in a dialogue with the Turkish government, something which, under Anastasiades, Papadopoulos, Clerides, Kyprianou… was not easy to achieve. The President is right to consider this important and may well continue it in Antalya. But is Erdoğan preparing a surprise for us?
Source: DOES HE REMEMBER THAT HE HAD INITIATED A DIALOGUE WITH ANKARA?
