Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana lambasted as “provocative” recent statements made by President Nikos Christodoulides on the Cyprus problem, as well as plans for French soldiers to be stationed on the island from later this year.

“As we have repeatedly stated before, making international agreements with third parties while ignoring the Turkish Cypriot side, one of the island’s two equal founding partners, is not only inconsistent with the island’s legal status, it seriously undermines efforts to create the atmosphere for a solution,” he told the north’s Tak news agency.

He added that “similarly, constantly making provocative statements which run contrary to the facts and almost champing at the bit to do so, accusing the guarantor power, Turkey, of being an occupier on the island, also greatly harms efforts to create a climate of trust on the island”.

To this end, he also offered criticism for Christodoulides’ insistence that he participates in negotiations “in a dual capacity” both as the leader of the Greek Cypriot community and as the internationally recognised state authority on issues including guarantees.

“These statements, which are completely detached from the facts, are also unfortunate,” he said.

He stressed that “it is important to remind everyone that as of today, there is no ongoing negotiation process”, while adding that “it is clearly stated in the United Nations’ documents that that good offices’ mission undertaken by the UN secretary-general to reach a solution on the island is between its two leaders”.

“This is a very clear and unambiguous point. For this reason, all statements made within the context of the efforts carried out under the good offices’ mission refer to the two community leaders. Indeed, the statements made by the UN after the meetings held by the leaders also pay the utmost attention to this,” he said.

Later, he was about reports of a “new initiative” to be undertaken on the Cyprus problem by incumbent UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, with Erhurman saying that such an initiative will commence in July and Christodoulides having said that it is already underway.

“It is a well-known fact, and one which we have expressed on numerous occasions, that [Guterres] intends to take a new initiative as of July, depending on developments in the meantime,” he said.

He added that Guterres “expressed his continued interest in the Cyprus issue and his desire to undertake a new initiative, provided that both sides fulfil their respective obligations, during his meeting with our president in New York” in February.

On this front, he said that the UN’s position had been that such an initiative “would only be possible after the elections on the Greek Cypriot side and the subsequent end of their [Council of the European Union] presidency”.

Those elections are set to take place on May 24, while Cyprus will hold the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of June.

“In light of these facts, the claim that [Guterres] has already initiated a process is not only correct, but also aims to obscure expectation that the parties must first achieve significant and meaningful progress on confidence-building measures on the island,” he said.