Holguin meets Fidan ahead of Guterres’ Cyprus visit

United Nations envoy for the Cyprus problem Maria Angela Holguin on Friday met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara, as she completed her latest round of contacts ahead of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Cyprus next week. No official statements were made by either party after Friday’s meeting, though Turkish news website T24 quoted Turkish foreign ministry sources as having reported that Fidan said that Turkey, “as a motherland and a guarantor power, believes that the most realistic solution to the Cyprus problem lies in the coexistence of two states side by side”. The website added that Fidan had told Holguin that “approaches which do not recognise the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot people, namely sovereign equality and equal international status, based on the realities on the island, will not contribute to a solution”. Holguin had earlier in the week met both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the commission’s envoy for the Cyprus problem Raffaele Fitto in separate meetings in Brussels. Von der Leyen had said after her meeting with Holguin that “I welcome her active engagement, alongside [Guterres], to resolve the Cyprus issue within the UN framework and in line with European Union principles, values, and legislation”. “The European Commission will support this effort with all the assistance and tools at our disposal,” she said, before adding that Fitto is “engaging with all key stakeholders”. Fitto, meanwhile, described his own meeting as “an important opportunity to establish a constructive working relationship and exchange initial views”, and added that “the European Union remains fully committed to supporting the UN-led process”. While as yet unverified, Fidan’s reported return to rhetoric regarding a two-state solution could prove to be evidence of a hardening of Turkey’s position ahead of Guterres’ visit to the island, especially after Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said words to the same effect when he visited Cyprus on Monday. Yilmaz had said that “the way for a permanent and sustainable solution is to accept the sovereign equality and equal international status of the two states”, and lamented that “negotiations which have been going on for years have been inconclusive because the Greek Cypriot side does not see it fit to … accept the Turkish Cypriots as an equal partner”. However, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman remains unwavering in his position, saying himself on Monday that the Turkish Cypriots “have been willing to solve [the Cyprus problem] for many years”, pointing to their vote in favour of the 2004 Annan plan to reunify Cyprus and its support for the most recent round of negotiations in earnest, held at the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in 2017, as examples. He also referred to Guterres’ insistence that “this time it must be different”, saying that “we do not want negotiations for the sake of negotiations, or a five-plus-one meeting for the sake of a five-plus-one meeting”, before stressing that “we want to be result-oriented”. The term “five-plus-one” is a reference to the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, who would all attend an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem were it to be convened. Prior to this week, Turkey, too, had appeared to be more open to such a prospect, with Fidan, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, and Internal Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner, signing a joint declaration offering his support for Guterres’ efforts in Cyprus last month. Additionally, both von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa had called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “seize the renewed momentum” to bring about a solution to the Cyprus problem, when the trio met on the sidelines of the Nato leaders’ summit in Ankara earlier this month. Cyprus did not feature at all during Erdogan’s statements to the press following Friday prayers in the Istanbul suburb of Uskudar, on the eastern banks of the Bosophorus. Guterres will arrive in Cyprus on Monday, before holding separate meetings, first with Christodoulides and then with Erhurman, at their official residences on the Tuesday morning. Later on Tuesday, he will visit the Committee on Missing Persons, before holding a tripartite meeting with both leaders on Wednesday at the UN’s good offices mission. At the beginning of this month, Holguin had called on Cypriots to “seize this historic opportunity to negotiate a lasting solution” and said that Guterres is “evaluating which could be the next phases that will convince both parties to take concrete steps towards a final solution”.