Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides walked into talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Tuesday with a single message: he wants an honest conversation about restarting Cyprus reunification negotiations, and he is ready to move as early as next week.
“I am going to this meeting for an honest dialogue — to see how conditions stand for resuming talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017,” he said, speaking before leaving the Presidential Palace.
“I repeat: I am fully ready, even next week, to attend an enlarged meeting that will lead to that outcome.”
The meeting began shortly after 11am local time at the Nicosia residence of Khassim Diagne — the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNFICYP — within the UN protected area, with Diagne present.
Erhürman arrived first, with Christodoulides following two minutes later.
Christodoulides said he was not distracted by the current climate or the statements being made around it. He had, he said, a clear goal and a clear purpose.
That goal, he made plain, is a solution based on relevant UN Security Council resolutions — as reflected in the joint UN communiqué both leaders agreed to in December.
He said he wanted to believe Erhürman shared that objective. Asked directly whether he expected the Turkish Cypriot leader to clarify his position on the type of solution he is seeking, Christodoulides offered two words: “We’ll see.”
He noted that much time had been lost with Erhürman’s predecessor, Ersin Tatar, whose pursuit of a two-state solution outside the UN resolutions framework was accepted by neither the international community nor the Greek Cypriot side.
His five-point proposals, tabled at a previous meeting, remain on the table unchanged. There would be no new package today. “They are there,” he said.
He expressed hope that today’s talks would go beyond confidence-building measures and touch on the substance of a settlement, arguing that the two are connected.
Progress on the core issues has historically had a positive knock-on effect on CBMs, he said, while cautioning that CBMs must complement a Cyprus solution rather than substitute for it.
On where things currently stand, Christodoulides said negotiators had been meeting and that progress had been made on some issues.
Certain CBMs have already been implemented; others are in advanced consultation and close to agreement; some face difficulties due to differing views. “There is political will on our side to make progress on all of them,” he said.
(information from CNA)
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