‘Important to seek convergences’ at April meeting

It is important to find necessary convergences at next month’s informal five-party summit to allow the UN secretary-general (UNSG) to convene a conference for substantive talks for a Cyprus solution, government spokesman Kyriacos Koushos said on Wednesday.

Stressing the importance of resuming the process from where it left off at the last round of talks in 2017, Koushos said “much work has been done that cannot be erased or ignored.”

During statements at the Presidential Palace, Koushos referred to Tuesday’s National Council. President Nicos Anastasiades, he said, briefed the political leaders about the intentions of the Greek Cypriot side in the informal conference that will take place late April in Geneva. The island’s two community leaders and guarantors Greece, Turkey and the UK will meet in Geneva in a summit convened by the UNSG to discuss the way forward.

“Our goal is that the conference is crowned with success, so that talks can resume,” Koushos said. What’s important, he added was to find those convergences to allow the UN secretary-general to convene a conference for substantive talks.

“We will try to achieve the continuation of the talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana, always in the context of the UN resolutions and decisions that determine the form of a solution,” Koushos said.

He added that Anastasiades has been trying to convince his interlocutors of the need for the EU’s presence at the April meeting.

“The principles and values of the EU are what guarantee stability and we are trying to persuade the UN to invite the EU,” Koushos said. He recalled that the EU wants to be present at the informal summit. “We hope that in the end we will succeed,” he said.

Anastasiades says he plans to discuss a solution based on the existing UN framework, which calls for a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality. Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and Turkey are calling for a two-state solution, citing the failure to reach a federal solution.

Ruling Disy launched a series of contacts recently aimed to discuss the Greek Cypriot side’s positions with foreign diplomats and Turkish Cypriot parties, especially the issue of political equality. Disy leader Averof Neophytou said he fully backs Anastasiades’ idea of a decentralised federation, arguing this would ensure political equality and a functional, federal state.

As part of his contacts with the Turkish Cypriot parties, Neophytou met on Wednesday with head of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) Tufan Erhurman at Disy’s headquarters in Nicosia. This was the second meeting between the two parties after Neophytou visited CTP’s offices in the north earlier this month.

“During the meeting, ideas and thoughts were exchanged on how the secretary general’s initiative can be supported in order to pave the way for a solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the bizonal bicommunal federation as defined in the UN resolutions and in the Guterres framework,” Disy’s head of the Cyprus problem desk, Charalambos Stavrides said.

Neophytou also met earlier this month with former Turkish Cypriot leaders Mustafa Akinci and Mehmet Ali Talat, head of the People’s Party (HP) Kudret Ozersay and of the Communal Democracy Party (TDP) Cemal Ozyigit. He also met with former negotiator of the Turkish Cypriot side, Ozdil Nami.

In the meantime, French ambassador in Cyprus, Salina Grenet-Catalano, met on Wednesday with Tatar to listen to his views ahead of the informal summit. “France supports a resumption of negotiations. Our long-standing position is that the best solution is a federation with political equality,” the ambassador said in a tweet.