President Nikos Christodoulides on Monday said that “feverish” preparations are ongoing in the hope of achieving tangible results on the Cyprus problem during the United Nations general assembly’s “high-level week”, which will get underway in New York next Monday.
“What I can tell you is that preparations are continuing – feverish preparations – and a meeting of the negotiators is taking place today, so that during the general assembly week, results may emerge which lead to the desired goal,” he said.
That “desired goal”, he added, is “the announcement of the resumption of negotiations” in earnest on the Cyprus problem.
He was also asked about a telephone conversation between UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin, which was due to take place last week, and confirmed that it “did take place”.
“We have received an initial briefing. I will not disclose the outcome of the discussion,” he said.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana and Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou are expected to meet on Monday, with Christodoulides and Erhurman expected to meet on Thursday for the final time before both travel to New York.
Convergences document was to be expected in ‘a matter of days’
Following the pair’s most recent meeting last week, Christodoulides had said that a document listing the convergences reached in talks on the Cyprus problem up to now would be ready in “a matter of days”.
He said that pursuant to the document being ready, “I imagine that, according to some information we have, though it is not a given, there may be a joint meeting in New York, either with the [UN] secretary-general or his personal envoy, either at the level of leaders or at the level of negotiators, we will see”.
Last week’s discussion, he said, “continued on the three issues – methodology, substance and confidence-building measures”.
“On some issues, there is progress, in the sense that there is a common understanding. On some, however, there continue to be disagreements, different approaches,” he said.
He also stressed that the ongoing meetings between himself and Erhurman are “not just one meeting, but a continuation of the previous meetings which have taken place”.
“It is a continuation of the meetings which the negotiators have, too. So, we are not starting from scratch in the next meeting. The issues before us are very specific. On some, there is a common understanding. On others, there is a disagreement, a different approach, and on those, the discussion will continue,” he said.
Asked whether he is “satisfied” with the discussions being held on the methodology of talks and the substance of the Cyprus problem itself, he said that “I believe that the issues of both methodology and substance are clear on how we can move forward, how the conditions can be created for the resumption of talks”.
“My personal opinion, because I cannot speak on behalf of anyone else is that we are, as things stand, ready for the talks to resume from where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana,” he said, in reference to the collapse of the most recent round of negotiations in earnest at the Swiss ski resort in 2017.
Erhurman told Christodoulides to not ‘undermine trust’
Erhurman, meanwhile, said after the meeting that he had told Christodoulides to “refrain from initiatives which undermine trust”.
“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”.
“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 by the Turkish Cypriot community, 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 which was owned by Greek Cypriots prior to their displacement 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”.
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