Nicosia, Cyprus. Discussions on opening new crossing points between Cyprus’ two sides remained deadlocked during United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to the island, amid disagreement over changing a package of four locations agreed last year.
The Greek Cypriot side proposed opening two crossings initially, while the Turkish Cypriot side insisted that all four agreed points must proceed together.
Four-point package
The opening of four crossing points has been the agreed formula since an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in Geneva in March last year, when Guterres asked both sides to propose two new points.
At a subsequent enlarged meeting in New York four months later, the Greek Cypriot side proposed a road linking Athienou and the Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia, with a crossing point at each end.
The Turkish Cypriot side proposed crossings at Mia Milia, in eastern Nicosia, and Louroujina, the southernmost Turkish Cypriot village north of Larnaca.
Proposal to split package
According to high-level sources, the Greek Cypriot side proposed at Wednesday’s tripartite meeting with Guterres and the Turkish Cypriot side that the package be divided and only two crossing points opened after the UN chief’s visit.
The proposal would remove Louroujina from the package, opening the Athienou-Aglandjia road and the Mia Milia crossing point, while postponing the Louroujina crossing.
The Turkish Cypriot side refused to discuss any arrangement that did not include the opening of all four crossing points. Sources quoted the side as saying that “once the package is broken, there is no point in arguing about what is left”.
Continuing disagreement
Whether the four-point package agreed in New York should be altered has been disputed in recent months.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had criticised President Nikos Christodoulides over a proposal for a new pedestrian crossing in Nicosia’s old town, rather than pursuing the four originally agreed locations.
Erhurman said that developing further proposals while the four crossings remained unresolved risked making an agreement impossible. He said that when he took office in October, he found a map marking four new crossing points and viewed deviations from them as an unnecessary complication.
