Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman outlined his terms for resuming Cyprus negotiations during his first meeting with UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Thursday, whilst traffic congestion at the Agios Dometios crossing point consumed significant discussion time.
Holguin, who arrived in Cyprus on Thursday to begin consultations with both sides and the three guarantor powers, is scheduled to meet President Nicos Christodoulides today as part of efforts to secure agreement on convening a new informal five-party meeting requested by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The one-hour meeting in the occupied areas focused initially on traffic congestion at the Agios Dometios checkpoint, where construction work on a third lane in the buffer zone has exacerbated delays.
In statements following the meeting, Erhurman said he presented his four-point proposal for restarting negotiations in detail and explained the reasoning behind it. He also outlined a 10-point package he had previously presented to President Christodoulides.
Erhurman sought to place responsibility for the traffic chaos at Agios Dometios on the Greek Cypriot side and the Republic of Cyprus authorities, stating that inefficient operation of booths at the Greek Cypriot checkpoint was causing delays.
He added that his spokesperson Mehmet Dana and office director Mustafa Ergiuven visited the checkpoint personally and contacted the UN, whilst requesting that Dana communicate with Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou.
“One of the 10 points in the package I proposed in my first meeting with President Christodoulides was the continuous staffing of three booths at the checkpoint so that potential problems could be overcome much more easily,” he said.
Holguin said she looked forward to a productive discussion with both leaders and expressed pleasure at returning to the island. She congratulated Erhurman on assuming leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community and characterised the discussion as useful. “I am pleased to be hosting next week’s meeting of the two leaders. And I aim for it to be a very productive and very concrete discussion between the two leaders and myself,” she said.
Erhurman used Thursday’s meeting to raise objections to lawful actions by the Republic of Cyprus whilst continuing to set conditions for a new informal 5+1 meeting requested by the UN Secretary-General last July. Guterres had announced that a new meeting between the two leaders and representatives of the three guarantor powers would take place before year’s end, something that now appears difficult in practice.
When asked whether the next informal 5+1 meeting was discussed, Erhurman said they did not discuss it in detail but that he had set out a position of principle. “Let’s resolve some issues in Nicosia, let’s be sure, and in a meeting in another country, which will be attended by the UN Secretary-General and the guarantor powers, we can send positive messages to everyone,” he said.
The likelihood of new informal 5+1 talks will become clearer after Holguin completes consultations in Athens, Ankara and London.
