Erhurman criticises Christodoulides over failed tripartite talks

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday excoriated President Nikos Christodoulides’ course of action during the United Nations’ “high-level week” in New York, saying that in the circumstances, a tripartite meeting of the pair and the UN would not have produced a result. He also criticised Christodoulides’ decision to arrive in New York with 19 new points for discussion after seven possible confidence-building measures had already been put forward by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “What was the purpose of the tripartite meeting requested in New York? To put 19 points on the table and say, ‘forget about the seven points’? Is this the time to discuss 19 points which have not been discussed at all?” he asked. He added, “why did you not bring these points up in July when the secretary-general was on the island, or in other meetings on the island?”. “In that case, let’s bin off the seven points and have 19 points this time, and then I will bring 29 points at the next meeting. Of course, this will not lead us to a solution. This is an approach of a meeting for the sake of a meeting,” he said. He pointed out that he and Christodoulides have met each other 11 times since he took office in October last year, and said “I accepted every meeting request in Nicosia, because you cook up the results in Nicosia”. “When we get to the point of reaching an agreement, then a tripartite meeting or an enlarged meeting can be held. What good does it do anyone to hold meetings just for a photo opportunity? Now, everyone has to decide. Do we want a solution, or just to appear to have negotiated?” he asked. He said that after Guterres had visited the island in July, he had demanded that progress be made on seven issues – crossing points, mine clearance, the citizenship of children born of mixed marriages, sports, joint disaster response and a joint mechanism to combat irregular migration. These issues, he said, were discussed during his first meeting with Christodoulides after Guterres’ departure. Second meeting only concerned ‘trust-undermining actions’ However, he said, by the next meeting a week later, “many developments had occurred under the heading of trust-undermining actions and procedures, and that meeting was entirely dedicated to discussing those issues”. “In the final meeting before going to New York, Christodoulides, as if those seven points never existed, brought forward 19 new proposals, in his own words. I only listened to them, and then the meeting ended. No progress was made on the seven points, the methodology, or the issues of substance,” he said. He then pointed out that Guterres had said before last week that there would be no enlarged meeting in New York and said that “there is still a lot of work to be done”, before referring to the letter sent by the Republic of Cyprus’ permanent representation at the UN warning foreign diplomats not to meet Turkish Cypriots. He also made reference to the changing of Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci’s title at the Cyprus Forum, which the forum’s executive president Nicolas Kyriakides told the Cyprus Mail said was requested by officials from inside the Republic of Cyprus’ government. “As soon as we became aware of this, we shared it with [UN Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela] Holguin,” he said, before making reference to Holguin’s own statement on the issue, in which she said that such moves “absolutely” do not help efforts to create favourable conditions for negotiations to resume in earnest. Erhurman offers hour-by-hour account of developments in New York Then, he offered an hour-by-hour recount of discussions last Thursday, in which an offer was made by Christodoulides for a tripartite meeting to be held. “At 8.15am, we held a meeting with Holguin. The possibility of a tripartite meeting was not raised at all during this meeting, nor was it on our agenda. At 11.35am, a message from Holguin was sent to presidential undersecretary Mehmet Dana. It stated that Christodoulides had proposed a tripartite meeting,” he began. He said that no such request had been made during his final meeting with Christodoulides prior to travelling to New York, and that in a subsequent meeting between Dana and UN undersecretary-general for peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo at 11.45am, “the matter of a tripartite meeting was not raised”. “At 1pm, Holguin joined DiCarlo’s delegation, Dana and his delegation met with Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and his delegation. A tripartite meeting was not even mentioned in this meeting. We spoke on confidence-building measures and it was seen that there was no possibility of an agreement on any of the seven points,” he said. Then, he said, at 5.30pm, “Holguin sent another message to Dana asking what I thought about a tripartite meeting”. However, at 3pm local time, 10pm Cyprus time, the Greek Cypriot side had already briefed journalists that Erhurman had rejected the prospect of a meeting being held. ‘I did not refuse, I said that the confidence-building measures before us are clear’ “My answer was very clear. We have seven proposals regarding confidence-building measures. If there is a chance of reaching an agreement on a few of them, and if the secretary-general has time, I would participate in such a meeting. There was no reply to this message,” Erhurman said on Monday. He added that on Friday, “Holguin indicated that she wished to meet”, and she met the Turkish Cypriot delegation on the floor allocated to them at Turkish House in New York. “Holguin said that a possibility of compromise had emerged in line with our request regarding the rotating presidency and asked if we would agree to a tripartite proposal. However, Christodoulides was trying to link the rotating presidency to security and guarantees,” he said. In response, he said, “I said that if his intention is to discuss the rotating presidency with security and guarantees in front of the secretary-general, then we have no chance of reaching a compromise, but if he is talking about accepting it in principle, I will come”. As such, he stressed that “these were not invitations from the secretary-general, but requests for meetings from Christodoulides”, and that “I did not refuse, I said that the confidence-building measures before us are clear, and that if there is a possibility of an agreement even on two or three of them, I will come”.