Christodoulides and Erhurman to Meet Tuesday Before UN Envoy Holguin Visits Cyprus

Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman will hold another meeting on Tuesday, shortly before UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin, arrives on the island. The talks are set for 11am at the offices of the UN Good Offices Mission.

Programme of the meeting

During the session, the two leaders will also hold a joint meeting with members of the Technical Committees on Youth and Cultural Heritage, along with the Civil Society Advisory Body.

Christodoulides is due to see Holguin on Friday. A joint meeting of the president, Erhurman and the UN envoy has also been arranged.

Talks with the UN on the buffer zone

On Monday, Christodoulides met Khassim Diagne, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp). He restated the government’s increasing concern about violations, or attempted violations, of the status quo in the buffer zone by the Turkish Cypriot side, and said the government wanted such incidents to stop.

Government position on Varosha

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, the government called for detailed discussion of how its Varosha proposal could be made acceptable to the Turkish Cypriot side, instead of concentrating on reasons to reject it. Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the proposal could bring immediate, tangible benefits to both communities. He also confirmed that Christodoulides had raised the buffer zone concerns in his meeting with the United Nations.

Earlier on Monday, Christodoulides repeated that his Varosha proposal remained on the table and was different from an earlier initiative dating from 2005.