On September 23, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhurman, will travel to New York, where he will hold separate meetings with the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy, María Ángela Olguín. He said he expects substantive discussions regarding the roadmap for continuing the process.
In remarks following today’s meeting—Thursday—with President Nicos Christodoulides, which he described as “better than the previous one,” Mr. Erhurman confirmed that neither a trilateral meeting between the two leaders and the UN Secretary-General nor a 5+1 meeting is on the agenda. “After all, nothing of the sort was on the agenda,” he added.
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Referring to yesterday’s statement by the UN Secretary-General on the Cyprus issue, Mr. Erhurman said that his remarks that “there is still a lot of work to be done” and “we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past” were significant. The Turkish Cypriot leader said that from the outset, he has maintained that a new 5+1 meeting should not be held simply for the sake of holding it, but that it should be results-oriented, and that progress in Nicosia beforehand is essential.
Tufan Erhurman also referred to his own earlier statements that what happened in 2004 with the referendums and in 2017 at Crans-Montana should not be repeated, noting that António Guterres used a harsher term when speaking of “mistakes.”
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Mr. Erchurman stated that during today’s meeting they discussed the MOU and the substance of the Cyprus issue, and that President Christodoulides presented some new ideas while he shared his own views.
He also noted that during the drafting of the MoU, steps that undermine the existing atmosphere of trust should be avoided, referring once again to the cancellation of two festivals and the Barcelona Academy event, the reactions to Mehmet Dana’s meeting with foreign ambassadors in the buffer zone, and decisions by the European Parliament. He stated that all these issues had been raised with both the EU and the UN.
The Turkish Cypriot leader stated that he is not opposed to a new 5+1 meeting, but the necessary preparations in Nicosia must be completed and the necessary groundwork laid for it to yield results. “At present, the conditions for a new 5+1 meeting have not been met,” he said.
Tufan Erhurman said that, as he had stated in an interview a few days ago, the Turkish Cypriot side has agreed to 6 of the 7 points set forth by the UN Secretary-General when he visited Cyprus in late July. The seven points, he noted, are new crossing points, demining, joint mechanisms for addressing natural disasters and irregular migration, sports, EU citizenship for children of mixed marriages, and the framework for the civil society mechanism. He added that there is still no agreement on new crossing points.
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Mr. Erciyaman said that “relevant authorities” on the Greek Cypriot side—without naming them—characterized the issue of citizenship for children from mixed marriages as a “humanitarian issue” and this, he added, is a small step forward, but he reiterated that the Turkish Cypriot side considers it a human rights issue.
“There is still no agreement on one of these issues, namely the new crossing points. Therefore, we are prepared to further evaluate all seven issues. We have already accepted six of them.”
Mr. Erhurman clarified, however, that at this time there is no agreement on the Terms of Reference or the methodology, “nor is there agreement on the first of the four points we had set forth.” “But we will continue to seek a solution because, for us, ‘no solution is a solution’ is not an approach,” he said.
In response to a reporter’s question about the frequency of the two leaders’ meetings and their outcome, Mr. Erhurman said that when asked why they meet if there is no result, the answer is simply, “We meet to achieve a result,” and he reiterated that this “is not a negotiating table, but a forum for dialogue, where both sides listen to each other’s views.”
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Responding to another question, he said that there is another important point in Mr. Guterres’s statements yesterday, and that is that the UN is not abandoning its efforts regarding Cyprus. “Consequently, this process is taking place within the framework of the UN. If the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy intend to take on a facilitating role regarding the issues that have not yet been resolved, and if they do so, this could certainly have a positive impact on the discussions here. I expect that they will make such an effort. “Therefore, I believe that the meetings in New York will be substantive, at least in terms of presenting a roadmap for the process moving forward,” he said.
Source: CNA
