President requests meeting with Tatar to resume talks

President Nikos Christodoulides in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, requested that a meeting be arranged with the Turkish Cypriot leader and also the appointment of a special representative to investigate prospects of talks, it emerged on Thursday.

Asked about developments following Tuesday’s meeting between Greek foreign minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Ankara, the president said that as far as he had been briefed, “prospects to restart talks” were created but added “you realise that everything will be judged on the data.”

Noting that his September 22 meeting with the UNSG in New York had already been arranged, the president said that on Wednesday he requested from Guterres in writing to “push for this meeting to happen with the Turkish leader [Tatar].”

“It is a message we also conveyed through our permanent representative as well as at the meeting I recently had with the UN Assistant Secretary General and I hope there will be a response,” he said.

Asked if his letter to the secretary general focused only on arranging a meeting, the president replied, “I was focused on the subject of the meeting and of course on the secretary general responding to the security council’s call for the appointment of a special representative, who will investigate prospects of the talks.”

When asked if a UN official is expected to arrive before his departure for New York, the president answered in the negative.

“I do not expect [a visit] to Cyprus from the UN secretariat. We are in contact with (UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative) Colin Stewart on this issue as well, [and also with] our permanent representation in New York.”