Kyrenia mayor to seek own meeting with Holguin

By James Morphakis Kyrenia municipality will ask for its own meeting with UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin, after Famagusta and Morphou secured talks with her, mayor Akis Violaris said. Violaris spoke on Wednesday after the municipal council and MPs of the district met with President Nikos Christodoulides. He said Kyrenia had not asked to see Holguin earlier as the union of occupied municipalities had jointly sent a letter requesting a meeting for all of them. “Thus, at the time, we did not consider it appropriate to request to see Ms Holguin alone,” he said. On Tuesday the municipality protested its omission, expressing “strong dissatisfaction and concern” and calling it “unacceptable”. It asked what criteria had been used and whether there were “two-tier” refugees, remarking that the exclusion “cannot be dismissed as a mere oversight”. Violaris said he had been informed that “a plan is being hatched where Morphou and Famagusta will return under Greek Cypriot administration and Kyrenia is not mentioned at all”, which “greatly worries the municipality”. “Seeing Morphou and Famagusta meeting with Ms Holguin, yes, we want to meet too, at least express our concerns,” he said. Asked by journalists as to whether Kyrenia should return to Greek Cypriot administration, he retorted, “of course, why not?”. Violaris said the municipality’s main concern was a solution that would “let residents return to their city and land safely, with all rights guaranteed as for other European citizens”. Christodoulides briefed the delegation on efforts to resume talks and, Violaris said, “listened carefully” and viewed their requests with understanding. The delegation also raised the difficulty of reaching young people who have never lived in Kyrenia and “know it only from their parents and grandparents”. “The effort made by the municipality is to bring them closer to Kyrenia,” he said. Famagusta mayor Simos Ioannou will meet Holguin at 4.15pm on Saturday at the old Nicosia airport, after she sees the Morphou delegation. Holguin will chair a trilateral meeting with both leaders on November 9. Kyrenia, isolated from the mesaoria plains by the Pentaktylos mountain range. is the only one of the Republic’s six districts whose boundaries lie entirely outside the government-controlled areas.