President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides expressed on Wednesday his optimism about the developments in the Cyprus issue, saying that the messages so far are positive.
He was replying to questions by journalists on his arrival at the event for the inauguration of the offices of the ?Cyprus Confederation of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, in Nicosia.
Asked if he was optimistic, he said “yes, I am optimistic. I had an exchange of messages with Holguin (UNSG’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus) but we are awaiting the official announcements. The messages so far are positive and I hope that when we are at the stage for the announcements, these will be transformed into concrete announcements”.
Invited to say if there is anything on the Turkish side that indicates that the process is progressing, the President said that he does not want to comment on what is happening with Turkey and noted that Holguin has already publicly referred today to messages from the Turkish side.
“We are ready, I repeat, to have positive announcements, which will pave the way for an expanded conference with the aim of announcing the resumption of the talks from where they were interrupted,” the President concluded.
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 due to Turkish intransigence. 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.