Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday said that it is expected that United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin will return to Cyprus in January, with a fresh enlarged meeting set to take place in the weeks that follow.

Speaking after a meeting with Turkish Cypriot political party leaders, he said that an enlarged meeting, which would bring together the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, “should not be held without prior agreements on certain issues in Nicosia”.

With Holguin set to arrive on the island next month, he said it would be “more appropriate” for an enlarged meeting to be held after her visit to the island, “if concrete progress is made during these contacts”.

He also made reference to his four points for negotiations to recommence in earnest.

Those four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” – a term Erhurman resents – foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements, and that the UN guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.

“There is agreement on half of the first article. That is, on political equality. However, it is not possible to move onto the second point before the first point is completed. We are halfway through the first point of the four-point methodology. We are at the point of political equality,” he said.

As such, he added, the island’s two sides “have not reached any conclusions regarding the solution model”.

“The solution model, as we call it, is the essence of the matter. We have made it clear repeatedly throughout this process that we will not discuss the substance until the methodology is complete. There is no consensus regarding the solution model,” he said.

His stance did not win the unanimous approval of all political parties, however, with Unal Ustel, the leader of the largest Turkish Cypriot party the UBP and the north’s incumbent ‘prime minister’, less than impressed.

He said after the meeting that the UBP’s views on the Cyprus problem “are clear” and that “we have conveyed this” to Erhurman.

“We will not discuss the Cyprus problem without two sovereign, equal states and equal international status,” he said, before saying that he had felt “discomfort” at the wording of the UN’s statement following the tripartite meeting involving Erhurman, Holguin, and President Nikos Christodoulides last week.

The statement’s explicit reference to “political equality”, he said, “has been interpreted as referring to a federation”.

Sila Usar Incirli, the leader of the largest opposition party the CTP, was more complimentary, saying that her party is “satisfied with the renewed momentum” on the Cyprus problem in the aftermath of Erhurman’s election as Turkish Cypriot leader in October.

“Of course, it is not possible to say that this progress is happening in giant strides. Progress is being made in small steps,” she said, before also speaking about the issue of “political equality”.

“We cannot accept that the issue of political equality in the solution of the Cyprus problem should be a subject of negotiation or weakened in any way,” she said, adding that “we are the party which advocates for a solution to the Cyprus problem and we believe a bicommunal, bizonal federal solution based on political equality would be the most appropriate model”.

YDP leader and ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, meanwhile, despite having vowed to stand in Erhurman’s way prior to the election, was also largely receptive of Erhurman’s stance, expressing satisfaction at the fact that Erhurman had not made reference to any particular solution model during the day’s meeting.

He also agreed that the next enlarged meeting should not be held “without filling the necessary gaps”, because “the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides has an extremely uncompromising stance”.

“He is trying to get something out of it and prepare for his own election. He is not ready to give anything,” he said. Christodoulides will face re-election in February 2028.