The President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said he is going to the meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhrman, on Thursday with a view to look into how the conditions for resuming talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana can be created, noting at the same time that he is ready to discuss confidence building measures and that he has several new ideas.
In statements to the media upon his arrival at the General Assembly of the Cyprus Property Developers Association in Nicosia and asked about Thursday’s meetings on the Cyprus issue, the President said that these are very critical meetings.
‘The first is the joint visit to the CMP anthropological laboratory, where I want to send a message together with the Turkish Cypriot leader. Beyond that there is the meeting that will take place, the first in many years in the presence of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, and I am going to this meeting with a single goal: how to create the conditions for resuming the talks from where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana,” he noted.
Christodoulides also noted that two and a half years passed by with the positions of the former Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, not allowing any substantive discussion on the resumption of the talks.
He expressed hope that “this meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader will also touch upon this very important issue.”
He added that “I am ready to discuss CBMs, especially the implementation of what has been agreed with the SG, new ideas – and I have several new ideas – in parallel with the substantive work for the resumption of talks, because that is the main issue.”
Asked about the four conditions set by Erhrman, President Christodoulides said that “there are no conditions regarding the Cyprus issue and there cannot be conditions that specifically touch upon the issues under negotiation.”
Asked if this could be an obstacle for the next expanded informal meeting, he said that “of course we will go to discuss all these issues and how the conditions for resuming substantive talks can be created.”
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.