The president of Cyprus urged Europe Oct. 29 to get tough with Turkey as he likened EU's concessions to Ankara to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. He is skeptical about any breakthrough in the Cyprus issue, The Guardian informs Oct. 29.

The source reads, “Demetris Christofias said that more than a year of negotiations with his Turkish Cypriot friend and counterpart, Mehmet Ali Talat, were in trouble.

If the talks fail, warned Hans Van Den Broek, the former Dutch foreign minister who sits on the Independent Commission on Turkey, ‘the island will certainly head towards partition. Tensions will rise in the eastern Mediterranean and EU-Turkey tension will deepen.’

With much at stake in the Cyprus talks, Christofias laid a large part of the blame for the stalemate on the Turkish leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ‘We don't agree on anything with Mr Erdogan,’ he said.

The fate of the Cyprus settlement talks is crucial to Turkey's bid to join the EU. Swathes of the complex membership negotiations between Ankara and Brussels are frozen because of Greek Cypriot objections.

Christofias warned that any European concessions to Ankara to keep Turkey on a pro-European path could backfire.”

“I don't compare Turkey with Nazi Germany,” he said. “But it is not reasonable to say don't challenge Turkey because it will get angry. There are rules and unfortunately Turkey does not respect those rules … This reminds me of the situation before the second world war, appeasing Hitler so he doesn't become more aggressive. The substance of fascism was the substance of fascism. Hitler was Hitler,” concludes Christofias.