UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin has blamed both President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman for a lack of political will on the Cyprus problem, drawing open disagreement from Nicosia, which says the two sides cannot be put on an equal footing.
In a new interview with a daily newspaper, Holguin, the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, again spread the blame for the lack of progress equally between the two leaders.
Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos told the state broadcaster CyBC that it was understandable diplomacy required some kind of equal distance, but stressed that this did not mean it reflected the real situation on the ground.
Holguin arrives on the island on Thursday, October 29. The United Nations has announced that she will meet the two leaders on November 9.
Famagusta council seeks meeting
The municipal council of occupied Famagusta will write to Holguin in a last attempt to secure a meeting before her appointment ends at the end of the year, after a year of requests went unanswered, mayor Simos Ioannou said.
Ioannou expressed his displeasure, saying Holguin meets civil society groups but the municipality represents the overwhelming majority of the refugees. He said the return of the fenced-off area of Varosha was one of the main issues in the Cyprus problem, though not the final solution.
He noted that there are resolutions providing for the area to be handed over to the United Nations, under its auspices, before a final settlement, and said the council wanted to explain to Holguin that this would have a very positive impact on an overall solution. “The Cyprus problem will not be solved by insisting only on opening crossing points,” he said.
Opening the area would give both sides a chance to show goodwill, Ioannou added. It could first be treated as a buffer zone, he said, before its permanent residents were allowed to return.
Varosha proposal remains on table
Christodoulides, who received Ioannou and members of the Famagusta municipal council, said the Greek Cypriot proposal on Varosha, which the Turkish Cypriots rejected, remains on the table.
According to a statement from the Presidency, he told them the timing of the meeting was important and that the proposal was not an old one but built on previous discussions. “It is not the same proposal as in 2005,” he said, adding that the proposal submitted to the other side was based on it.
Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said after the meeting that the proposal the government submitted to the Turkish Cypriot leader fully matched the priorities set by the UN Secretary-General himself.
The municipality had not only welcomed the proposal but pledged to work decisively to promote it and win its acceptance by the other side, which had unfortunately rejected it, Letymbiotis added.
In September in New York, Erhurman refused a three-way meeting with Christodoulides and Holguin, and also with the UN Secretary-General, arguing that the meeting had been proposed by the President.
