President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday said the election of pro-reunification candidate Tufan Erhurman as Turkish Cypriot leader is a “positive development”.

“I believe this was a positive development but we want to see it at the negotiating table. What is important is during the resumption of talks, and I am ready to resume talks even next week, what is going to be presented by the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish side,” he told Euronews.

“So, if the new leader of the Turkish Cypriot community comes to the negotiating table and talks clearly about bizonal, bicommunal federation, then I think the road is open for the solution of the Cyprus problem based on the United Nations’ security council resolutions.”

Asked if he would be willing to sit down with Erhurman, he said he would be “ready to sit with him next week”.

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He then added that “the current status quo cannot be the solution of the Cyprus problem”, and that “to reunite our country is the only option ahead of us”.

“From my side, I will do whatever is necessary in order first to resume negotiations and then solve the Cyprus problem …If we want to reach the full potential of our country, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, we need to reunite our country,” he said.

Erhurman won an unprecedented landslide victory in Sunday’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, unseating his soon-to-be predecessor Ersin Tatar, who supported a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, and winning a record number of votes for a Turkish Cypriot leader at a single election.

He is due to be sworn in on Friday, and has clearly set out his stall in favour of a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, and in favour of integrating the Turkish Cypriot community into the European Union, having told a rally of a thousand people in August that “every corner of this island will be Europe”.

“I swear and I promise, there will be no European south or Middle Eastern north on this island. Every corner of this island will be Europe. All young people, regardless of where they were born, will live together in a life worthy of human dignity. We do not accept inequality,” he said at the time.

Christodoulides had called members of Erhurman’s team to congratulate them on Sunday night, and later made a public statement declaring, “I reiterate my readiness, steadfast political will, and determination to continue contributing to the effort to resume substantive negotiations for the resolution of the Cyprus issue”.

“In this direction, the forthcoming informal, enlarged meeting announced by [UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres] constitutes a critical opportunity to restart the process,” he said.

That enlarged meeting is set to take place next month.