The UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, María Ángela Holguín, held a meeting on Wednesday with the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhrman, ahead of Monday’s joint meeting with the leaders.
Regarding her meeting with Erhrman, Holguín said that they discussed how work could continue in view of Monday’s joint meeting with the leaders.
Asked about the meeting she held on Tuesday with the illegal ambassador of Turkey to the occupied areas of Cyprus, Holguín said that she had been informed by Turkey’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs that a message had been sent to her via the ‘ambassador’.
‘That is why I came to meet him, simply to receive this message, something I also explained to Mr Christodoulides,’ she added.
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.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term nears its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.