Nikos Christodoulides sits at negotiations for a resolution to the Cyprus problem not only as the leader of the Greek Cypriot community, but as the president of the Republic of Cyprus, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Thursday.

“The president of the Republic of Cyprus is sitting at the negotiating table as the leader of the Greek Cypriot side and as president of the Republic of Cyprus, a state recognised by the international community, a European Union member state, especially with regard to aspects related to sovereignty issues,” he said.

The word “president” was not used in either of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ two reports on Cyprus which were published in January, with those reports referring to Christodoulides exclusively as “the Greek Cypriot leader”.

Previously, Christodoulides had in his own update in last July’s report on the UN good offices in Cyprus outlined his view regarding the position he holds in Cyprus talks.

“As per the longstanding practice in meetings with broader format that include the contractual parties to the 1960 treaties, I represented the Republic of Cyprus – through my capacity as president – as a contracting party to the said treaties, whilst also representing the Greek Cypriot community for the intercommunal aspects of the discussions,” he wrote.

This stance had irked Turkish Cypriot leader of the day Ersin Tatar, who wrote in his own update in the same report that “Christodoulides presented himself both as the ‘president of the republic of Cyprus’ and as the ‘representative of the Greek Cypriot community’ – thereby complicating the tone and dynamics” of talks.

Tatar also referred to himself as “the fifth president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.

At the same time, the UN does recognise Christodoulides as the president of the Republic of Cyprus and has recognised Greek Cypriot-led governments as governments of the Republic of Cyprus in the aftermath of the collapse of the constitutionally foreseen bicommunal Cypriot governments since 1964.

UN resolution 168, passed in March 1964, recognised the government of the day as the government of Cyprus, notwithstanding the ejection of its constitutionally mandated Turkish Cypriot members.

Additionally, the creation of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) in 1964 was pursuant to a status of forces agreement forged upon letters sent between UN secretary-general of the day U Thant and foreign minister of the day Polycarpos Yiorkadjis.

More recently, Christodoulides’ stance that he be party to talks as the president of the Republic of Cyprus has drawn criticism from incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana, who described the position as “detached from the facts” and “unfortunate”.

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.