Holguin ‘will return to Cyprus before month’s end’

United Nations envoy for the Cyprus problem Maria Angela Holguin will return to the island before the end of the month, Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou said on Wednesday, with efforts both in Cyprus and abroad ramping up to bring about a resumption of negotiations in earnest to solve the Cyprus problem. “First of all, we know when Holguin is coming to Cyprus. It will be within the last ten days of this month. For the exact dates, we will have to wait a few more days,” he told Politis radio. He added that at present, Holguin is “continuing her contacts” abroad, saying that “what we know at the moment is that she will make contacts in Brussels and then come to Cyprus”. Asked if it is still possible for an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to take place “before the summer holidays”, he said that “if the conditions allow this enlarged meeting to take place and be productive … we have time”. “It is not a matter of time, it is a matter of political will. We, for our part, have said that we are ready for things to move forward,” he said, clarifying that “productive”, in this case, would mean that “it can lead us to the goal of making a decision to restart the process of talks”. He said that the Greek Cypriot side’s will to bring about a resumption of talks is “obvious to the naked eye”, but that “there are still some obstacles, and this can be seen by looking at the positions which continue to emanate from the Turkish side”. “However, the effort is to be able to overcome them and reach the point where [talks can recommence] on the federal basis, which is the only framework within which an effort can be made,” he said. On this front, he said that the “shift” which occurred in the Turkish Cypriot side’s position when Tufan Erhurman was elected as Turkish Cypriot leader last October was “not a complete one”. “This shift was manifested in a reference to political equality in place of sovereign equality, which is something different, because political equality is customary and closely linked to the federal framework. It is not complete because there has been no reference to federation, and this is an issue which is holding things back,” he said. He added that this “shows that there is a problem which must be overcome”, and that it “stems from the Turkish side, which has the decisive say and role, the position which is still being put around is for a two-state solution”. “This is an obstacle which must be overcome because a new effort can only be carried out under the agreed federal framework,” he said. He said that Turkey says it is clear in the positions it states publicly and “does not say anything else when it is behind closed doors”, though Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has publicly expressed support for the “new initiative” on the Cyprus problem being undertaken by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Asked about reports which surfaced both in Politis newspaper and in British newspaper the Independent regarding the prospect of a “looser” solution to the Cyprus problem, he said that what was reported is “not up for discussion” and that the elements of a solution which appeared in the reports “have not been raised” with him. “Holguin has made it clear herself through the statement she issued on July 1, which states that all these things which are circulating as rumours are unfounded. The effort which is being carried out has as its basis the reaffirmation of the convergences and on those issues and others, there are convergences from previous efforts,” he said. He went on to say that the Greek Cypriot side’s position is that negotiations should resume from “where they left off” in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in 2017, but that “the position of from the Turkish side is not this”. Returning to the matter of the immediate future, he said that “we believe that there will be steps in the coming period, this mobility will continue”. “There is determination on the part of [Guterres], there is determination on the part of the European Union, and all of these factors which thus create an expectation. What we must do is continue our own effort to exhaust every margin and to do everything in our power to increase the possibility of achieving our goal,” he said.