Just a few days after he was slammed by the government and political parties for visiting the ‘presidential palace’ in the north and interviewing Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, MEP and YouTuber Fidias Panayiotou on Sunday answered back.

“I thought that with this debate the two sides may understand each other a little better and and maybe with this move things for our national issue would get a little better because they are already at rock bottom.

“It seems, the parties, journalists and people who govern us in this country have a different opinion. It seems that what they are interested in is not the substance, but the people involved and the possibility a protocol will be violated,” he added.

In a video on social media, Fidias publicly stated that he does not recognise Tatar as president, nor the building he went to to conduct the interview as a presidential palace. “I publicly state that I do not recognise him as president,” he said and because of that “I have no problem getting in and doing my job.”

He then added that there was more to come. In addition to interviewing Tatar, Fidias said he has lined up his main opponent in the upcoming elections CTP leader Tufan Erhurman to appear on his podcast.

On Thursday, Tatar urged Fidias not to give in to threats and to go ahead and release the interview. In his video, Fidias said it would be released in the coming days.