Holguin postpones Famagusta and Morphou meetings ahead of trilateral

UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin has postponed meetings with the displaced municipalities of Famagusta and Morphou that were due on Saturday and will now see them on Tuesday, as preparations enter their final stage for a meeting with the two Cypriot leaders on Monday. Holguin is presently finalising the agenda for the trilateral meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman. The United Nations says it will begin at 11am on November 9 at the residence of the head of the UN mission in the buffer zone. The Famagusta and Morphou meetings would have been Holguin’s first with displaced municipalities. Famagusta mayor Simos Ioannou planned to raise the return of the fenced-off area of Varosha to its legal residents under UN auspices, while Morphou mayor Victor Hadjiavraam likewise planned to ask about refugees and the right of return. Christodoulides has proposed opening Varosha under the UN while reopening Famagusta port under the EU. The Turkish Cypriot side rejected the notion, as Erhurman said the port is already open and the real issue is the inability to trade directly with the EU.