Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s special representative Gunes Onar on Thursday met United Nations under-secretary-general for peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

Tatar’s office said the meeting “addressed preparations for the tripartite meeting to be held on Saturday” involving Tatar, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and President Nikos Christodoulides.

It added that Onar “conveyed to DiCarlo the Turkish Cypriot side’s views on the course and content” of that meeting.

Earlier in the week, he had met Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN Anna Evstigneeva and Switzerland’s deputy permanent representative to the UN Oliver Hoehne.

During those meetings, he discussed with Evstigneeva and Hoehne the two enlarged meetings on the Cyprus problem which have taken place so far this year, as well as Saturday’s planned tripartite meeting.

Saturday’s meeting will be held with a view to arrange a third enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem this year, involving Cyprus’ two sides, the UN, and the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, likely taking place in late November.

That enlarged meeting will take place after the Turkish Cypriot leadership election on October 19.

That election will see Tatar be challenged by former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution.

However, to do so, he will likely have to convince Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said in his speech to the UN general assembly on Tuesday night that a solution to the Cyprus problem “cannot be built on the federal model” – the model preferred by Christodoulides and set out in UN resolutions.

This, Erdogan said, is because attempts to find a federal solution to the Cyprus problem have “failed due to the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot side”.

“I invite the international community to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and to establish diplomatic, political and economic relations,” he said.

Christodoulides hit back at Erdogan during his address to the general assembly on Wednesday, saying that Erdogan had pointed the finger to others, for crimes Turkey itself commits every single day.

“From this very podium … Erdogan preached the world on peace and accountability. He pointed the finger to others, for crimes Turkey itself commits every single day. That is selective sensitivity and hypocrisy of the highest form,” Christodoulides said.

He added that “illegality stemming from use of force cannot be recognised”.