United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Tuesday lamented that “not much progress” had been achieved on confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides since her previous visit to the island.
Speaking after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides, she said she is hoping to “push for more progress” on the issue of confidence-building measures, with a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman set to take place later in the day.
“I will see Mr Erhurman this afternoon and I hope there will be progress. Until now, there has not been much progress,” she said.
She then said that during her planned tripartite meeting with Erhurman and Christodoulides on Wednesday, she hopes to “talk about the methodology, the four points that Erhurman put on the table a few months ago”.
“That is the issue of tomorrow, and I hope there will be progress,” she said, before adding that it would be “very difficult” to organise an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem if more progress is not achieved during Tuesday and Wednesday’s meetings.
Asked if it would still be possible to hold another enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem involving the UN, the island’s two sides, and its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom next month, she said that such an eventuality “depends on the progress of the two leaders on the confidence-building measures”.
Erhurman’s four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” – a term he resents – foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements, and that the UN guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.
After Holguin left the presidential palace, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis took questions from journalists, and insisted that the Greek Cypriot side is not to blame for the lack of progress Holguin had lamented.
“What I will limit myself to saying is that we have shown a generally acknowledged constructive stance … not only through the many proposals that we have submitted, but also through President Christodoulides’ approach to the proposals which have been put forward by the other side,” he said.
He added that “we have proven this and will continue to prove it”, and that “we, too, would like to see progress on confidence-building measures”, before saying that both the issues of confidence-building measures and of negotiations recommencing in earnest are “where the sincere political will should be revealed”.
To this end, he spoke on the matter of plans to open new crossing points between the island’s two sides, saying that the Greek Cypriot side had “submitted very specific proposals which were unfortunately not accepted” at the last enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in July last year in New York.
“A pedestrian crossing point had also been submitted, I remind you, so that a positive climate could be created which would be the springboard for the resumption of negotiations, but it has not been accepted so far. Let’s see tomorrow how the discussion will be conducted on this issue,” he said.
On the matter of whether another enlarged meeting will be held in the coming weeks, he said that the Greek Cypriot side is “ready to attend an enlarged meeting tomorrow”.
“We maintain … that the convening of an enlarged meeting allows for discussion on substantive issues of the Cyprus problem, and this is what we have been seeking since day one. We desire and seek the obvious, the dialogue, the exchange of arguments, the presentation of positions,” he said.
He said the Greek Cypriot side seeks this “precisely because we know our positions and arguments are correct”, before adding that “now is not the time for blaming”.
Additionally, he briefly spoke about Erhurman’s four points, saying that Christodouldies “has repeatedly stated his position in a clear manner” on them.
“There is a specific way, a specific approach, if our goal is truly to resume negotiations,” he said, before adding that “the goal cannot be anything other than the resumption of negotiations”.
“This, as an approach, as a desire, as a goal, must be made clear in the clearest way, and tomorrow’s meeting will be an opportunity … [Christodoulides] will once again approach it in the same constructive manner, with the same constructive attitude, presenting his proposal in a clear way on how we can bring about the resumption of negotiations.”
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