Nicosia, Cyprus. Reports on Friday said the United States government viewed Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s four stipulations for resuming Cyprus negotiations positively. President Nikos Christodoulides has so far appeared reluctant to accept the four points and has instead presented a five-point proposal.
Reported US contact with Erhurman’s office
Veteran journalist Ulas Baris reported that Erhurman’s office received a telephone call last month from “one of the highest-ranking representatives of the US state department,” who said they wished to meet Erhurman. Baris also reported that the official told Erhurman’s office, “we appreciate your four-point methodology” and “we find it positive”.
Erhurman’s four points for renewed negotiations
Erhurman’s four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” in reports, foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements. They also call for the United Nations to guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.
Christodoulides’ response and five-point proposal
Christodoulides said after Wednesday’s tripartite meeting with Erhurman and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin that “I answered this when I went there, about those four specific points”.
At the tripartite meeting, he presented a five-point package of proposals. It included reaffirming “the basis for a solution to the Cyprus problem” and having the UN prepare a list of convergences found between the two sides up to the point negotiations collapsed in Crans-Montana in 2017. His third proposal was that a new enlarged meeting be convened, and the fourth was that at that meeting the resumption of talks based on the list of convergences be announced.
His fifth proposal was that four crossing points be opened after the next enlarged meeting: in the uninhabited Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina; in the village of Louroujina; between Nicosia and Larnaca in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia; and a through road between the town of Athienou and the southeastern Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia.
Erhurman’s reaction
Erhurman said on Wednesday that Christodoulides’ five-point proposal “contained no new elements” and “reiterated topics which had been raised in various forms before”. He said that while Christodoulides had accepted the first of his four points, political equality, “in principle”, more needed to be done for the matter to be considered closed.
What impact do you think the competing proposals will have on prospects for restarting Cyprus negotiations?