Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus’ two sides are working to arrange a new meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, aimed at creating conditions for an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem later this year.
Proposed leaders’ meeting
Presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos said the Greek Cypriot side had requested a meeting between the leaders within August and was awaiting a response from the Turkish Cypriot side.
Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said the two leaders were expected to discuss the methodology of future talks and record convergences reached during previous Cyprus problem negotiations, among other matters.
Sources close to Erhurman said both sides were working to organise a new leaders’ meeting following his proposal, made during a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for the leaders to meet weekly.
Weekly meetings proposal
Papadopoulos said on Monday that Christodoulides was ready to do anything that could help achieve the resumption of talks and a resolution of the Cyprus problem, responding to Erhurman’s suggestion of weekly meetings.
Erhurman renewed his call for weekly meetings, saying the two sides should complete the “homework” set by Guterres during his visit to the island. He said both sides had stated, in front of Guterres and at a subsequent press conference, that they were ready for weekly meetings.
Enlarged meeting
Following last week’s tripartite meeting, Guterres said an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem would be convened after adequate progress had been made on confidence-building measures, the methodology of talks and their substance.
The proposed “five-plus-one” meeting would include the two sides in Cyprus, the three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.
Erhurman’s proposal for weekly meetings echoed an agreement reached in August 1974 by then acting president Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash during a visit to the island by then UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim.
