President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday evening that he hoped similar incidents, like the one at the Istanbul Summit, earlier this week, will never be repeated by anybody who is involved at the Cyprus process.

Asked whether the crisis has now been defused, the President said “yes, I think that after the statement by the UN Secretary General, certain attempts that were made are now rectified and I hope that…no similar phenomena are going to be repeated by anyone who is involved in the process”.

The President made the statements before attending a cultural event, in Nicosia.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades had on Friday a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Their conversation took place in the wake of the events that took place in Istanbul earlier this week, on the sidelines of the UN World Humanitarian Summit, which Anastasiades attended.

Anastasiades decided on Monday evening not to attend a dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in honour of the heads of state and government who attended the Summit, after he learned that Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci was attending the same dinner.

Moreover, Akinci had a meeting in Istanbul with Ban, in the presence of the latter`s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, something which also caused Nicosia`s reactions.

Following these events, Anastasiades decided to cancel his meeting on Thursday, in Nicosia, with UNSG Special Adviser Eide, as well as his meeting on Friday with Akinci, in the framework of the UN-led talks which aim to solve the problem of Cyprus, divided since the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974.