A trilateral meeting between President Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and UN Secretary-General António Guterres is scheduled for September 27 following the conclusion of the UN General Assembly, sources told Phileleftheros.
The meeting date for the final Saturday of September appears locked in, with discussions between the United Nations and the two island leaders focusing on holding the summit after the General Assembly concludes. Sources noted that final confirmation of the meeting date remains pending.
UN Secretary-General Personal Envoy María Ángela Holguín is expected to arrive in Cyprus for preparatory meetings with both leaders ahead of the New York summit. Holguín will meet President Christodoulides on Friday, September 12, and visit Tatar at his office on Monday, September 15.
UN envoy Holguin to visit Cyprus for preparations
Part of Holguín’s mission in Cyprus involves working on preparations for the trilateral meeting in New York. She will primarily focus on assessing how both sides have moved forward since the July multilateral talks and evaluate implementation of agreements reached with the Secretary-General. During her contacts, she will also meet with mediators from both sides.
Regarding the broader picture of the Cyprus problem, no dramatic developments are expected in New York. All involved and interested parties agree that the upcoming “elections” in the occupied north on October 19 leave little room for hope. The Christodoulides-Tatar-Guterres meeting aims more towards reviewing the implementation of “low politics” issues.
Turkish Cypriot leader focuses on October elections
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has thrown all his efforts into next month’s “elections,” with the Cyprus problem serving more as an object for vote gathering. Tatar uses the Cyprus issue to criticise his rival for Turkish Cypriot leadership, Tufan Erhurman, or to attack President Christodoulides.
He insists on a hard line along the axis of a “two-state” solution. This is a line from which no one expects him to deviate until the October 19 “elections.”
Tatar has blamed the Greek Cypriot leadership, and President Christodoulides for Turkish Cypriot problems in all his statements. He accuses them of delays at crossing points and issues concerning children of mixed marriages.
In a written statement, he accused the President of the Republic of pursuing “arbitrary policy” and “violating the constitution and laws” of the Greek Cypriot side, as he characterised the Republic of Cyprus. According to the occupation leader, this policy by Nikos Christodoulides is “the basic cause of problems faced” by hundreds of people in the occupied areas, whom Tatar refers to as “victims of mixed marriages.”
No dramatic developments expected in New York
Tatar further argued that both the “mixed marriages” issue and problems that emerged at crossing points result from the “separatist, maximalist and fanatical policy of the Greek Cypriot side.” He again accused President Christodoulides of showing no interest in his proposals for opening two new crossing points.
The same wavelength as Ersin Tatar was adopted by Tahsin Ertugruloglu, the so-called foreign minister of the occupation regime. In statements in the occupied areas, he claimed that “sooner or later the world will be forced to proceed with de jure (legal) recognition of the de facto situation prevailing on the island.”
He repeated that “sovereign equality and equal international status will open the way for an agreement based on the reality prevailing on the island.” He further conveyed that as long as the United Nations “recognises the Greek Cypriot administration as the Republic of Cyprus, there will be no solution, as the policy of two sovereign equal states with equal international status must be accepted.”
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