Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman will travel to New York on 23 September, where he will hold separate meetings with the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy, Maria Angela Holguín. He said he expects substantive discussions on the roadmap for continuing the process.
No trilateral or 5+1 meeting planned
Speaking after today's meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides, which he described as "better than the previous one," Erhürman confirmed that no trilateral meeting between the two leaders and the UN Secretary-General is scheduled, nor is a 5+1 meeting. "There was nothing of that sort on the agenda in any case," he added.
Response to UN Secretary-General's remarks
Referring to the UN Secretary-General's statement made the previous day on the Cyprus problem, Erhürman said his references to "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 he has maintained from the outset that a new 5+1 meeting should not take place simply for its own sake, but should be results-oriented, and that progress in Nicosia beforehand is necessary.
Erhürman also referred to his own earlier statements that the events of 2004, relating to the referendums, and 2017 in Crans-Montana, should not be repeated, noting that António Guterres used a stronger term in speaking of "mistakes."
CBMs and substance discussed
Erhürman said today's meeting covered confidence-building measures (CBMs) and the substance of the Cyprus problem, with President Christodoulides presenting certain new ideas and Erhürman setting out his own views in response.
He said that in developing CBMs, steps that undermine the existing atmosphere of trust should be avoided, referring again to the cancellation of two festivals and the Barcelona academy event, reactions to Mehmet Dana's meeting with foreign ambassadors in the buffer zone, and decisions of the European Parliament. He said all of these issues had been raised with both the EU and the UN.
Conditions for a new 5+1 meeting
The Turkish Cypriot leader said he is not opposed to a new 5+1 meeting, but that the necessary preparations in Nicosia must first be completed and the groundwork laid for it to produce results. "At present, the conditions for a new 5+1 meeting have not been fulfilled," he said.
Six of seven points agreed
Erhürman reiterated, as he had stated in an interview a few days earlier, that the Turkish Cypriot side has agreed on six of the seven points raised by the UN Secretary-General during his visit to Cyprus at the end of July. The seven points, he said, are: new crossing points, demining, joint mechanisms for natural disaster response and irregular migration, sport, EU citizenship for children of mixed marriages, and the structure of a mechanism concerning civil society. He added that there is still no agreement on new crossing points.
Erhürman said that "competent bodies" on the Greek Cypriot side, without naming them specifically, had described the issue of citizenship for children of mixed marriages as a "humanitarian issue," which he said represents a small step forward, though he reiterated that the Turkish Cypriot side regards it as a matter of human rights.
"There is still no agreement on one of these, namely the new crossing points. As such, we are ready to further evaluate all seven issues. We have already accepted six of them."
No agreement yet on CBM methodology
Erhürman clarified that at present there is no agreement on CBMs or on methodology, "nor is there agreement even on the first of the four points we had set out." "But we will continue to seek a solution, because for us, 'no solution is a solution' is not an approach," he said.
On the frequency of leaders' meetings
Asked by a journalist about the frequency of meetings between the two leaders and their outcomes, Erhürman said that in response to the question of why they continue meeting when no result has been achieved, the answer is simply that "we meet in order to achieve a result," adding that this is "not a negotiating table, but a table of dialogue, where the two sides listen to each other's views."
UN's continued engagement
Responding to another question, he said a further important point in Guterres's statements the previous day was that the UN is not abandoning its effort on Cyprus. "This process is therefore being carried out within the UN framework. If the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy intend to take on a facilitating role regarding the issues that remain unresolved, 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. I therefore believe that the meetings in New York will be substantive, at least in terms of presenting a roadmap for the process going forward," he said.
