Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Wednesday said that he had told President Nikos Christodoulides to “refrain from initiatives which undermine trust” during their meeting earlier in the day.
“The main topics of the meeting were confidence-building measures and methodology. While we were unable to reach an agreement on new confidence-building measures during a significant part of the meeting, we conveyed our views regarding external and internal initiatives which are eroding even the existing level of trust,” he said.
He added that he had “emphasised that if we wish to move the process forward, it is crucial to create the ‘conducive climate’ mentioned by Guterres”, the United Nations secretary-general.
“To this end, we stressed the need to both implement new confidence-building measures and refrain from initiatives which undermine trust,” he said.
Those comments come after Erhurman had earlier lamented that trust is “being eroded” by initiatives taken by the Greek Cypriot side to cancel international events being held in the north, such as a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia.
He had also criticised the arrests made by the Republic of Cyprus of people it accuses of illegally using or selling property in the north which was owned by Greek Cypriots prior to 1974, as well as its pursuit of deepening relations with the State of Israel.
Under these circumstances, he added, “it is, I believe, evident to everyone, not only to Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, but also to the international community, that ‘writing history together’ is by no means an easy task”.
He is expected to meet Christodoulides again next week.
Click here to change your cookie preferences