Christodoulides ‘ready’ for weekly meetings with Erhurman

President Nikos Christodoulides is “ready” to hold weekly meetings with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman in the aim of achieving the requisite progress for a new enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to be convened, presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos said on Monday. “Anything that can lead us to the goal of resuming talks and resolving the Cyprus problem, the president of the republic is ready to do so,” he said in response to a question on the matter following the conclusion of the day’s National Council meeting. He also said that it is “very positive” that at the conclusion of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to the island last week, he said that “this effort is being made within the United Nations’ parameters, is being made on the basis of the convergences, and the achievements of the previous talks”. Guterres, he said, had “called on us to cover the last mile, which indicates that we should continue from where the talks were interrupted in the summer of 2017” at the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana. His reference to the UN parameters comes with both Greece’s foreign ministry and Turkey’s ruling AK Party’s spokesman Omer Celik having expressed their support for them. The former said on Wednesday last week that “the resolution of the Cyprus problem, within the parameters set by the United Nations security council, and the reunification of the island remain a firm goal”, while the latter said that “these issues will continue to be discussed on the basis of diplomacy and the United Nations’ parameters”. Papadopoulos on Monday also said that Christodoulides had “informed the [National Council] that the entire month of August, he will be at the disposal of the United Nations”, and that “we have been working since the day after meeting [Guterres] … in this direction”. He went on to say that Christodoulides had “told the members of the body what he intends to do in the immediate future, so that the secretary-general’s effort to convene an enlarged meeting as soon as possible will succeed”. Asked what a realistic timetable for the convening of an enlarged meeting may be, he said that “the UN has a specific plan” and that “to put it in place means that [Guterres] considers the remaining time to be realistic, so that he can convene an enlarged meeting and resume talks with the prospect of success”. Then asked whether the “preparatory stage” ahead of the planned enlarged meeting will be more focused on confidence-building measures or on recording convergences, he said that the enlarged meeting’s aim must be “a specific result, which is none other than the resumption of talks”. “Therefore, [Guterres’] effort is to reach a point where by going into the enlarged meeting … when we go to the talks, we will have a result, and the result, which he has set as a goal, is the resumption of talks,” he said. He added that “confidence-building measures naturally help create a climate”, but stressed that they are “not a prerequisite” for an enlarged meeting to be convened. Erhurman had earlier in the day renewed his call upon Christodoulides to meet him once a week so as to complete what he described as the “homework” set by Guterres during his visit to the island. He said that Guterres’ statements at the end of last week’s tripartite meeting were “clear enough that they do not require any discussion or interpretation” and stressed that “if a five-plus-one meeting is desired, there are clear homework assignments for Nicosia”. “What did we say? As we left the meeting, in front of Guterres, we said that we are ready to meet Christodoulides once a week. We also said this in the press conference we held immediately after the meeting,” he said. Guterres had said after last week’s tripartite meeting that a new enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem will be convened “after adequate progress” is achieved on the matters of confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks. This is the “homework” to which Erhurman has since referred. That meeting, also referred to as a “five-plus-one” meeting, will involve the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN. Erhurman’s call for weekly meetings echoed an agreement reached by then acting president Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader of the day Rauf Denktash when then UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim visited the island in August 1974. At the time, Waldheim described the leaders’ agreement to hold weekly meetings as “a limited step” but acknowledged it as “a very encouraging sign for the future”.