Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Friday met three of his four living predecessors, Mehmet Ali Talat, Mustafa Akinci, and Ersin Tatar, as efforts continue both on the island and abroad to bring about a resumption of negotiations in earnest to solve the Cyprus problem.

No public comment was made regarding the meetings’ content, with Erhurman’s office disclosing only that a planned meeting with former Turkish Cypriot leader Dervish Eroglu had been postponed to a later date due to health problems being experienced by Eroglu, who is now 88 years old.

The meetings come with President Nikos Christodoulides expected to convene the National Council next week, and with United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin expected in Brussels in the coming days for meetings with European Union leaders.

Holguin has this week travelled to both Ankara and Athens to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis, having been in Cyprus last week for meetings with both Christodoulides and Erhurman.

Tufan Erhurman and Ersin Tatar

She is expected to return to the island before the end of this month, having confirmed last week that it is currently intended for an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the UN, to be convened either in late July or early August.

This latest round of contacts comes with the UN having undertaken a “new initiative” with the aim of bringing about a resumption of formal negotiations.

Both leaders had stressed that they will be aiming for tangible results to be achieved from the next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem when it takes place, with Christodoulides saying after his meeting with Holguin that “the goal is to lead us into an enlarged meeting, during which the resumption of talks will be announced”.

Erhurman, meanwhile, convened a meeting of Turkish Cypriot political parties on Tuesday and stressed the need for “results” to be achieved at the next enlarged meeting.

“It should not be a five-plus-one for just for the sake of a five-plus-one. It should be a five-plus-one so that results are achieved,” he told a press conference after the meeting was held.

Tufan Erhurman and Mehmet Ali Talat

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone call on Monday night to discuss the Cyprus problem, hours after Fidan had met Holguin.

High-level sources informed the Cyprus Mail that Erdogan has green-lit the UN’s “new initiative”, with Erdogan said to be of the view that the lack of a solution to the Cyprus problem has “unduly cost Turkey through no fault of its own” in recent decades.

The sources said that Turkey’s support of both the 2004 referendum and the 2017 negotiations, both of which were rejected by the Greek Cypriot side, constitute evidence of Erdogan’s “pragmatic and constructive stance” and “will to engage in the hope of securing a solution to the Cyprus problem”.