President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said Wednesday that progress was achieved on four of the six points -set by the UN Secretary General- at the meeting he held with Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar in Nicosia on Wednesday. The President also announced that a new meeting will take place with the Turkish Cypriot leader before Easter.
The President, who returned to the Presidential Palace after meeting with Tatar in the Nicosia airport UN-protected area, this morning, told journalists that today’s meeting was held at the initiative of the Greek Cypriot side, following the informal meeting in broader format that took place in Geneva in March.
There was progress on four issues, he said, adding that “we agreed to establish a Technical Committee for Youth with 12 members from each side. We will propose the names to the United Nations by April 15”. The second issue, he said, concerns environmental issues, noting that the Technical Committee for the Environment will discuss specific issues following the proposal of the Greek Cypriot side in the discussions that took place in Geneva.
The third issue, he went on to say, concerns the restoration of cemeteries adding that the Technical Committee for Monuments will proceed with that. He added that the fourth issue concerns the clearing of mines. “What was agreed is to have an exchange through the negotiators in relation to which sites we wish to have demining carried out”.
Regarding the fifth issue, that concerns the crossing points, the President said that there has been progress, but no result. He explained that the discussion was better than the last time, there was some progress, but without anything to announce, adding that the discussion will continue at the negotiators level.
In relation to the last issue, which concerns the issue of energy, the President of the Republic noted that there are some demands that cannot be accepted by our side, as they go beyond the framework set by the European Union itself, which has expressed interest in financially supporting this effort.
President Christodoulides said that, in addition to these issues, he raised two other issues. The first, he said, concerns the issue of the implementation of what has been agreed in Pyla and the importance of implementing what was agreed, and the second concerns some specific requests from the Maronite community, which will be examined “and we will see if there will be a positive response.”
The President said he requested that they have a new meeting as soon as possible, before Easter, which will take place.
Moreover, he said “we expect this week, as we have been informed by the United Nations, which is in the midst of bureaucratic procedures, for the announcement regarding the personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary General.”
Today, he added, all actions of the Greek Cypriot side were within the framework of what was done and discussed in Geneva, with the sole aim of resuming the talks on the basis of the agreed framework.
He added that special references were made by both him and Tatar in relation to what they discussed in Geneva. “We are here, we know where we want to go, we know how we will reach our goal and this effort continues”, he pointed out.
Asked where the positions of the Turkish Cypriot side on the issue of energy deviate from the European framework, the President of the Republic said that “our position is that any Confidence Building Measures (CBM) should strengthen the effort to resolve the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework”.
“No CBM, which can be used to strengthen arguments for another form of solution to the Cyprus problem, and I am obviously referring to the two states, cannot be accepted, and this is also the position of the European Union, as expressed in the letter of the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, but also in the specific project that the EU is ready to finance”.
Regarding the crossing points, President Christodoulides said that a substantive discussion took place today, adding that “I explained how important are for us the issues of Pyroi-Athienou and of Kokkina with specific references to the distance, with specific responses to concerns that were expressed”.
He added that a discussion took place, and that he considered the discussion to be a better one than the previous discussion, which was a simple refusal from the Turkish Cypriot side.
“A discussion took place, we had arguments. In fact, we showed specific maps and this will continue, the discussions will continue at the level of the negotiators as well,” he said.
Asked whether the Turkish Cypriot leader no longer had a negative position, President Christodoulides said that he did not want to speak on behalf of Tatar, but said that “A better discussion took place than the last time. We do not have a positive outcome, I explained why Pyroi-Athienou is important, why the issue of Kokkina is important, how the residents of the areas will benefit and when we talk about a CBM the entire Cypriot people should benefit. I understand the importance of Mia Milia for him, what I asked for and explained, I repeat, using a map, is how important these two crossing points are”.
Invited to say if the map he presented was the same one he presented during a previous discussion, the President said “yes, with more specific references, with distances, with how it will work in both cases and in the issue of Pyroi-Athienou and in the issue of Kokkina which concerns a very short distance, which will greatly facilitate the lives of the residents of the area”, he said.
Asked whether Tatar will expect answers from Turkey on the issue of the Maronite villages, the President said that the Turkish Cypriot leader did not tell him how he would proceed after the end of the meeting they had today, but noted that several of the issues that were discussed require the consent of Turkey and the Turkish occupation army.
Invited to say whether there is a response to the request for an exclusive engagement with the Cyprus issue on behalf of the UNSG’s envoy, President Christodoulides said that this is done by the United Nations in order to obtain the consent of the Republic of Cyprus.
These clarifications, he added, were given about the need for someone to be engaged exclusively with this issue, so that there is an outcome in July. He stressed that the outcome we are aiming for, is the resumption of substantive talks.
There cannot be an appointment of an envoy who will be engaged with the issue or visit Cyprus and the region once or twice every two months.
“We want someone who will deal exclusively with this issue and help in the resumption of the talks. These are the issues we conveyed to the United Nations and I must say that the United Nations understand the importance” the President said.
Concluding, he noted that “the UN Secretary General was present in Geneva, we agreed with the UNSG on some things, this meeting will take place again at the end of July with the UN Secretary-General and there must be an outcome”.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
UN Secretary General announced that an informal meeting on Cyprus in a broader format will be held at the end of July, following a similar meeting in Geneva, on March 17-18. Antonio Guterres also announced that he will appoint a new personal envoy on Cyprus to prepare the next steps, while the two sides agreed to proceed with a number of initiatives, involving the opening of crossing points, the creation of a Technical Committee on Youth and other initiatives in the buffer zone and throughout the island.