Nicosia, Cyprus. United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin is due to return to Cyprus next month for separate meetings with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and President Nikos Christodoulides, according to reports on Tuesday. She is also expected to travel to Greece and Turkey after the meetings.
Scheduled meetings
The Cyprus News Agency reported that Holguin will meet both leaders separately on June 8 and discuss “both the substance and the confidence-building measures”.
Previous visit
Holguin last visited Cyprus in January, when she held a tripartite meeting with both leaders. Afterward, she said no enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem could be held until more progress was made on confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides.
Christodoulides’ position
An enlarged meeting would involve the island’s two sides, the three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well as the UN. Christodoulides has said this remains his main aim, and earlier this month he said he expected a date for such a meeting to be announced “soon”.
He said at the time that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ “effort is being strengthened even more”, adding that “we expect soon to have a positive outcome, which, for us, can be nothing other than the convening of an enlarged meeting at which the resumption of talks will be announced”.
Turkish Cypriot concerns
The convening of an enlarged meeting would require the consent of the Turkish Cypriot side. Erhurman has previously expressed reservations about holding such a meeting before substantial progress is made in devising and implementing confidence-building measures between the two sides in Cyprus.
He has said Christodoulides’ insistence on the issue amounts to an effort to circumvent the Turkish Cypriots. Speaking at last month’s Antalya diplomacy forum, he said, “I want to emphasise this. What they actually understand by an enlarged meeting is this, I am sorry, but the Greek Cypriot leadership has always tried to address the Republic of Turkey, not the Turkish Cypriot side. This is being repeated.”
He added that he would rather discuss matters directly with the Greek Cypriot side.
