Leaders’ meeting at CMP lab ‘a positive first step’

The upcoming meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar is a significant step towards efforts to resume negotiations, the government spokesman said on Wednesday.

“We consider this a very positive first step, as this will be the first meeting since the day the president took on his official duties,” Konstantinos Letymbiotis told reporters at the presidential palace.

Friday’s meeting is slated to take place at the anthropological laboratory of the Committee of Missing Persons (CMP).

The meeting marks the first one since Christodoulides was elected president, and the location is certainly significant, as it reflects a humanitarian matter that has no room for divisions, the spokesman said.

“We must all contribute to discovering the fate of the missing,” Letymbiotis added.

He expressed Christodoulides’ intention to restart talks, saying he was ready to return to the negotiating table “even today” where talks left off in Crans-Montana.

“This is our stated intention, this is our stated proposal. It is now recognised by all that our sincere will to resume negotiations is also evident through the president’s taking concrete initiatives, both within the country and in the international community,” Letymbiotis said.

Commenting on the Turkish Cypriot CMP member who refused to attend a meeting with Standing Rapporteur on missing persons in Cyprus, MEP Isabel Santos citing the fact that she did not meet with Tatar, Letymbiotis said Santos had been invited by the Republic of Cyprus and met with the president of the country.

Nonetheless, the spokesman stressed Christodoulides is actively trying to make positive contributions, including his suggestion to have a greater EU involvement in the talks.

“It is now clear that the president, with sincerity and determination, is constantly expressing our persistence, our sincere will and our concern for the immediate resumption of negotiations,” Letymbiotis said.

He added that they will not enter into a process of public confrontation and reiterated his call to both Turkish Cypriots and Turkey to return to the negotiating table from where they have left off. He added that at the moment “time is working against us and it is imperative to find a viable, final, peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework”.

Earlier this week, Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs Anna Aristotelous said the CMP’s biggest single donor is the Cyprus government after it donated €175,000