Cyprus community leaders, namely President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhrman, are scheduled to have a new meeting on Thursday morning, within the framework of their regular contacts and the continuation of substantive discussions between them. This will be their last meeting before the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It will take place at the United Nations offices in the defunct Nicosia Airport area.
Earlier this week, Greek Cypriot negotiator, Menelaos Menelaou, met with the special representative of the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Dana, with sources indicating that they had a substantive discussion.
Responding to a question from the Cyprus News Agency on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres stated that a 3+1 or 5+1 meeting on the Cyprus issue is not expected to take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, noting that “there is still a lot of work to be done.”
On September 9, after his last meeting with Erhrman, President Christodoulides stated that there might be a joint meeting of himself and the Turkish Cypriot in New York, either with the UN Secretary-General or with his Personal Envoy, Maria Angela Holguin.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.