Christodoulides to choose Cyprob negotiating team in January

President Nikos Christodoulides said on Thursday that in January he will hold a national council meeting and decide on his negotiating team for the Cyprus problem.

“At the beginning of the year I will announce the Cyprus problem [negotiating] team and I will call a national council meeting to inform them as soon as the UN Secretary-General makes his announcements,” he said during a visit to the Michalis Kailis military camp.

In response to a journalist’s remark that the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar reiterated his claim for two states at a time Cyprus is waiting for the appointment of an envoy of the UN Secretary General, the president said: “I personally did not expect anything different from Mr Tatar with the statements he continues to make.

What I have to say to both Mr Tatar and Mr Erdogan, with absolute respect to the Turkish Cypriot leader, that [Turkey] is where the decisions, the development of the negotiations will be decided.”

He added that there can be no other solution than the agreed framework and “certainly from our side we are not going to discuss anything else”.

Commenting further, the president said that they are expecting the announcement of the UN envoy, who will “come and stay in Cyprus for as long as necessary, so that we can work towards the resumption of the talks”.

Christodoulides added that the Greek Cypriot side is ready, and he plans to call for a national council meeting, because the other side would potentially move in the direction of driving the issue to an impasse.

Asked if there is any information on the terms of reference of the UN Secretary-General’s envoy, the president said that “we have spoken to the UN secretariat, there is no such condition. The conditions are set by the UN resolutions themselves and the Secretary-General himself is bound by them and the UN has mentioned this to us repeatedly.”

When asked, he said there is no time frame either.

“What matters is that there is political will and if there is political will, we can move forward,” he said.

On Wednesday, Tatar said about the envoy that if there is no recognition of the north there will be no talks, as the head of Tatar’s party UBP Oguzhan Hasipoglu called out President Christodoulides saying his interlocutor is Tatar and not Erdogan.