President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday said he is “ready” to discuss the matter of crossing points with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

Speaking during a tour of the Tillyria area, he said the Greek Cypriot side is “fully prepared” and has done “all the relevant preparatory work.

“Part of this work also concerns the Kokkina area. The residents’ absolutely justified request is well known, and when Tatar is ready, I am ready to meet with him, even on Monday, to start the discussion,” he said.

His comments come after Tatar criticised the Greek Cypriot side’s approach on the matter, saying that while his aim is to open new crossing points linking the Republic and the north, he believes it is the Greek Cypriot side’s aim to open what would effectively be transit roads connecting the Republic with other parts of the Republic.

“We wanted a crossing point at Mia Milia, while the Greek Cypriot side wanted to transit through the Turkish military areas near Athienou and Kokkina. This is unacceptable,” he said.

A crossing point near Athienou, for example, would cut journey times for people from Cyprus’ southeast to Nicosia if connected to another crossing point on the western side of the part of territory held by the north which juts southwards to encompass the village of Louroujina.

Meanwhile, while a crossing point near the Kokkina exclave would make life easier for the residents of the surrounding Greek Cypriot villages, the exclave itself has a civilian population of zero, thus raising questions of whether such a crossing point would be beneficial for Turkish Cypriots.

However, Turkish Cypriot Kythrea mayor Ali Karavezirler on Saturday said his municipality is “ready to do more than our part to open new crossing points”, and said he supports both Athienou’s Greek Cypriot mayor Kyriacos Kareklas and Pyrgos mukhtar Nikos Kleanthous in their quest for crossing points.

The municipalities of Kythrea and Athienou are effectively next to each other, with Kythrea’s municipal area having been extended as far south as the village of Louroujina when the Turkish Cypriots enacted municipal reforms in 2022.

Karavezirler said Louroujina’s residents “have been making serious demands for the opening of a crossing point in the area for years.

“They have been demanding a crossing point from Louroujina to the south of Cyprus for years, and I find this demand justified, and I support it. The village can no longer be a dead end. A new crossing point to Louroujina is vital in this sense.

Louroujina is surrounded on three sides by the Green Line, with only one accessible road into the village from the north. The Greek Cypriot village of Lympia is located just a few hundred metres to its south.

Tatar and Christodoulides had agreed at the informal dinner to hold future meetings to discuss the opening of more crossing points, but since then, local authorities in potential locations have all doubled down on their insistence that they be first.

Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci has been pushing for more crossing points to be opened in Cyprus’ divided capital, saying last week he plans to “bring onto the agenda” the possible opening of a second crossing point in Nicosia’s old town.

He also called on Christodoulides to open himself up to the idea of opening more crossing points and said that work is already going ahead behind the scenes with this aim.

To this end, he said he was now holding weekly meetings with Greek Cypriot Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos about the possibility of new crossing points being opened in the capital.