Insufficient groundwork has been done for either a 2+1 meeting between the two Cypriot leaders and the UN Secretary-General or a 5+1 meeting involving the guarantor powers, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman said on Saturday, arguing that no progress was made on any issue during talks in New York.
Erhürman nevertheless said the Turkish Cypriot side was ready to move forward on six of the seven points outlined by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres before leaving Cyprus last July, with disagreement remaining over the opening of new crossing points.
Speaking to Turkey’s ANKA news agency and journalist Yusuf Kanlı about his contacts in New York, Erhürman said President Nikos Christodoulides had requested a 2+1 meeting during his talks with Guterres and that the request was subsequently conveyed to him through the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín.
Erhürman said he asked Holguín whether the Greek Cypriot side had committed to making substantive progress but did not receive a positive response.
He reiterated his opposition to holding meetings without what he considers a basis for progress, arguing that Holguín’s own assessment of whether progress had been achieved was also negative.
“The intention was to create the impression that there was a reason and a basis for such a meeting and that we rejected it. We did not fall into that game. The Secretary-General and his envoy saw that there was no progress, nor any intention to make progress. We do not hold meetings for the sake of meetings,” he said.
Erhürman also said the two sides’ negotiators, Mehmet Dana and Menelaos Menelaou, met UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo and Holguín in New York, but that no progress was made on any issue during those contacts.
On 2+1 and 5+1 meetings
The Turkish Cypriot leader said his side remained open to both 2+1 and 5+1 formats but stressed that preparations and concrete progress in Nicosia were necessary if such meetings were to produce results.
He said Guterres wanted to see progress on confidence-building measures, the negotiating methodology and substantive issues before convening another meeting.
An unprepared meeting, he said, risked repeating unsuccessful processes of the past, adding that lessons should be drawn from the period spanning the 2004 Annan Plan process to the Crans-Montana talks in 2017.
Confidence-building measures
According to the ANKA report, the confidence-building measures raised by the UN Secretary-General include opening new crossing points, demining, establishing a joint disaster-response mechanism, cooperation in tackling irregular migration, developing contacts in sport, resolving issues concerning EU citizenship for children born to mixed marriages, and the operation of a civil society structure.
Erhürman said the Turkish Cypriot side was ready to reach agreement on six of the seven points, with disagreement continuing over the opening of new crossing points.
He said the dispute over the crossings centred on their routes and whether the proposals would be considered together.
Erhürman added that after no progress could be made on the seven points, the Greek Cypriot side presented a 19-point package.
He also said confidence-building measures required not only the creation of new areas of cooperation but also avoiding steps that could erode trust.
As examples, he again cited what he described as attempts to cancel two festivals and a Barcelona football academy youth camp, alleged interference with contacts by his representative Mehmet Dana in the buffer zone, and European Parliament resolutions.
