Erhurman calls for enlarged meeting ‘where success is guaranteed’

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Tuesday called for the next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to be one at which “success is guaranteed”, ahead of his trip to New York for the United Nations’ high-level week. He will travel to New York on Wednesday and is expected to meet both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin, among other officials. “The secretary-general, whom we will be meeting for the third time in our 11-month tenure thus far, has undertaken certain observations during this period,” he said, with the first of those being the promise to hold an enlarged meeting “after adequate progress” is achieved during his visit to the island in July. That adequate progress, Erhurman said, is to be achieved “on confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive issues, in that order”. “Regarding confidence-building measures, Guterres proposed initiatives concerning crossing points, mine clearance, joint mechanisms to combat disasters and irregular migration, the right to European Union citizenship for children of mixed marriages, sports and a joint committee on civil society,” he said. He also pointed out that Guterres had last week ruled out the prospect of an enlarged meeting being held in New York this week and said that the secretary-general had “stated that much work remains to be done” and “emphasised that we must not repeat the mistakes of the past”. “As we have always maintained, after so many fruitless experiences, we do not consider it right to pursue a five-plus-one meeting merely for the sake of having one, nor to engage in negotiations simply for the sake of negotiating,” he said. ‘Negotiations which will actually lead to a resolution this time’ He added that instead, “we seek a five-plus-one meeting where success is guaranteed in advance through preparatory meetings in Nicosia and negotiations which, in line with our people’s will for a solution, will actually lead us to a resolution this time”. Erhurman said that his stance on the prospect of holding such a meeting “echoes the secretary-general’s statements, expressed both after Crans-Montana – that ‘this time must be different’ – and at his recent press conference – that ‘the mistakes of the past must not be repeated’”. “We attach great importance to making progress on the confidence-building measures and methodology he himself has outlined. In short, our position is aligned with the secretary-general’s approach. We will continue to support the secretary-general’s efforts within the framework of these approaches for the remainder of his term,” he said. His reference to “much work” remaining to be done comes with three separate meetings of him and President Nikos Christodoulides having ended without concrete progress since Guterres visited the island in July. The two sides remain in open disagreement over the meaning of political equality, crossing points and the methodology of the talks, while throughout the summer, initiatives had been taken by the Greek Cypriot side to cancel international events being held by the Turkish Cypriot community, including a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia. Christodoulides hints at ‘behind-the-scenes’ meetings This prompted Erhurman to warn that such initiatives “undermine trust” between the island’s two sides, stressing last week that “if we wish to move the process forward, it is crucial to create the ‘conducive climate’ mentioned by Guterres”. Christodoulides, too, will hold meetings with Guterres and Holguin while in New York, and said on Monday night that “behind-the-scenes” meetings on the sidelines may hold the key to developments on the Cyprus problem. “What I can tell you is that I did indeed mention that we are not ruling out positive developments, because, from the moment we arrived here, we have observed numerous meetings, which I would characterise as behind the scenes, or out of the public eye,” he said. Those meetings, he said, are “aimed at creating the conditions this week, with all involved parties present in New York, for positive developments to occur”. “Such positive developments can mean nothing other than an announcement regarding the resumption of talks, picking up from where they left off at Crans-Montana, through an enlarged meeting,” he said, in reference to the most recent round of negotiations on the Cyprus problem, which collapsed at the Swiss ski resort in 2017.