Kyrenia municipality condemns exclusion from UN envoy talks

Kyrenia municipality protested its exclusion from consultations with UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Tuesday after it was announced she would meet delegations from Famagusta and Morphou municipalities during her current visit to the island. Kyrenia Mayor Akis Violaris, which has operated in exile since the Turkish invasion of 1974, expressed “strong dissatisfaction and concern” over Holguin’s meetings, calling his municipality’s omission from contacts “unacceptable”. Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Violaris said no such meeting with either Kyrenia nor the occupied municipalities of Akanthou, Karavas, Kythrea, Lapithos, Lefkoniko and Lysi had been relayed to them by either the government or the UN. The municipality said that, according to its information, President Nikos Christodoulides suggested Holguin meet the occupied municipalities, however she elected to choose only two. Related Articles • Holguin to meet with Famagusta and Morphou municipalities • Holguin remains optimistic after meeting Erhurman ahead of trilateral talks • ‘Progress is possible’ on Cyprus problem, Christodoulides says • Holguin remains ‘optimistic’ over prospect of enlarged meeting before year’s end • Christodoulides: I will do ‘everything humanly possible’ for progress in talks It asked what criteria were used to determine such and whether there were “two-tier” refugees. The exclusion, it said, “cannot be dismissed as a mere oversight”. The statement asked whether there was an attempt to create a “fait accompli” before any plan had been presented or discussed. The municipality said no initiative or proposed solution could divide refugees into those that may return and those that cannot be afforded the same privileges. “We refuse to accept a logic of selective representation,” it said, adding that the equal inclusion of all municipalities was “an inherent obligation” and not a favour. Call for the return of Varosha Famagusta Mayor Simos Ioannou said his meeting with Holguin is set for 4.15pm at the old Nicosia airport on Saturday after she meets the Morphou delegation. He said he would request the municipality’s perennial position that the fenced-off area of Varosha be returned to its residents under UN auspices, as a “confidence-building measure in exchange for opening the city’s port under European Union control”. He will also cite UN Security Council resolutions 550 and 789, which set out the legal status of Varosha. Holguin met Christodoulides on Friday and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday, and will chair a trilateral meeting with both leaders on November 9 after meeting Christodoulides later on Tuesday. The proposal for Varosha by Christodoulides, and made by former president Tassos Papadopoulos in 2005, describes it as “mutually beneficial”, although Erhurman has since rejected it, arguing it does not bring the EU’s direct trade regulation into force and is not a proportional bargain. Morphou return ‘non negotiable’ On Morphou, Christodoulides has said its return is “non-negotiable”, with the Annan plan having provided for the return of the town and surrounding villages, though not the district’s coastline. Kyrenia is the only one of the Republic’s six districts whose boundaries lie entirely outside the government-controlled areas. About 88 per cent of Famagusta district was also lost in the invasion, along with roughly a third of Nicosia district, to which Morphou belongs. The Cyprus Mail approached the UN for comment.