By Tom Cleaver

President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday expressed annoyance that some “on the Greek Cypriot side consciously choose to believe Tatar and not the president of the Republic of Cyprus”.

The statement came after he and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had returned to the island from a tripartite meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with differing accounts of what was said.

Christodoulides had said after that meeting that Guterres had told both him and Tatar that his aim is to resume talks for a settlement to the Cyprus problem from where they left off at Crans Montana in 2017, describing the statement as “particularly significant”.

However, Tatar denied this when he arrived back in Cyprus, saying that “the Greek Cypriot leader wants to begin talks from where they left off in Crans Montana, but Guterres said nothing of the sort”.

Following this disagreement, Christodoulides said, “I heard Tatar’s statement and those of some on the Greek Cypriot side who consciously choose to believe Tatar and not the president of the Republic of Cyprus”.

“Fortunately, there were six of us at the meeting. I was accompanied by the negotiator and the permanent representative,” he said in reference to Menelaos Menelaou and Maria Michael.

Of the meeting itself, he said that “taking into account the facts, the developments – there is an [electoral] process in the occupied territories – it could not lead to a result”, but that “despite being aware of this fact, [Guterres] proceeded with the organisation of this meeting, showing his political will”.

He added that he expects UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin to visit the island after the Turkish Cypriot leadership election, on October 19, and that she will also visit Ankara, Athens and London, the capital cities of Cyprus’ three guarantor powers, in addition to Brussels, in the coming weeks.

These meetings, he said, will take place “so that the ground can be prepared for the enlarged meeting before the end of the year, with the sole aim, now, of getting to the essence of the Cyprus problem, which is the resumption of talks”.

The enlarged meeting will involve Cyprus’ two sides, its three guarantor powers and the UN, and is expected to take place towards the end of November.

Then asked whether a reference to Crans Montana should have been made in Guterres’ readout of the meeting, he described the readout as a “general statement”, before once again offering criticism for those who “choose to believe” Tatar over him.

“I repeat, we were not alone in the meeting and I am impressed, not by what Tatar says, because I did not expect him to say anything different, but by those on the Greek Cypriot side who choose to believe Tatar and not the president of Cyprus. I repeat, it was a meeting in the presence of others,” he said.

Guterres’ readout of the meeting had simply stated that he had “welcomed the implementation of several important trust-building measures” agreed upon at the year’s two previous enlarged meetings, in March and in July.

It had also made reference to plans for Holguin to visit the island, and said he had “underlined the continued steadfast commitment of the United Nations to a peaceful resolution of the Cyprus issue for the benefit of all Cypriots”.