Negotiators from Cyprus’ two sides will meet on Thursday to discuss the opening of new crossing points, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s special representative Gunes Onar confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, he confirmed that he will meet Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou at 11am on Thursday.

The Turkish Cypriot side favours the opening of crossing points in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia and the isolated Nicosia district village of Louroujina, with Tatar having met Turkish Cypriot Kythrea and Louroujina mayor Ali Karavezirler to discuss the matter on Monday.

Karavezirler had told Kibris TV on Friday that his village is ready to “complete the 380-metre distance” between itself and the adjacent Greek Cypriot village of Lympia with a new crossing point.

“All we need is to be told, ‘the crossing points are opening’. We will take the necessary steps as soon as the decision is made,” he added.

The village of Lymbia is located immediately south of Louroujina, with the town of Dali and the village of Potamia being located to the west and northwest.

With no adjacent crossing point, Louroujina’s only transport link to the rest of the island is a single road which heads northwards and under the runway of Ercan (Tymbou) airport towards the main road between northern Nicosia and Famagusta.

Tatar had suggested that a crossing point be opened in Louroujina last week’s meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides, and Christodoulides seemed to be in favour of the idea, though questions remain over whether the eight proposals Christodoulides submitted to Tatar are divisible.

This is because one of the crossing points consistently floated by Christodoulides is a transit road through the Turkish Cypriot exclave of Kokkina from east to west – something Tatar has consistently been against.

While a crossing point near Kokkina 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.

The idea of a crossing point at Pyroi, near the town of Athienou, has also been floated by the Greek Cypriot side, though the Turkish Cypriot side has also charged that such a crossing point would constitute a “transit road” for Greek Cypriots rather than a crossing point between Cyprus’ two sides.

“With the opening of crossing points in Mia Milia and Louroujina, Ayios Dhometios will be relieved, and there will be mobility in those regions … As envisaged by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, this will be an initiative aimed at developing commercial and social relations between the two sides,” Tatar said after last week’s meeting.

In 2023, he had poured cold water on the idea of a crossing point in Kokkina, saying that it is not possible to open a crossing point there as it is a “sacred area” and functions as a military base.

At the time, Onar’s predecessor Ergun Olgun’s reaction to the Greek Cypriot side’s suggestion of a crossing point in Kokkina was scathing. He called the idea of a crossing point in Kokkina “a crazy proposition”.