Christodoulides ready for daily meetings with Erhurman before UN assembly

Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday he would be prepared to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman “every day” before their planned trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level week later this month.

He said he hoped the two leaders would hold several more meetings before the high-level week begins on September 22.

Planned meetings

Christodoulides said he was fully prepared to meet Erhurman daily, if necessary, until their departure for New York.

The two leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday. Their previous meeting, which had been intended as the first in a series of weekly meetings, was cancelled following the sinking of a passenger ferry off the coast of Kyrenia.

United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin had also been expected to travel to Cyprus this week, but will no longer do so because of illness.

Negotiators’ discussion

The Cyprus News Agency reported on Monday that Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and Erhurman’s undersecretary, Mehmet Dana, held a “good discussion” earlier in the day.

Focus on the Cyprus problem had receded in the north in the week following the ferry sinking. Before then, Christodoulides said he and Erhurman had been discussing various confidence-building measures.

Confidence-building measures and crossing points

Christodoulides said his government was ready for confidence-building measures that would support efforts to reunify Cyprus and resolve the Cyprus problem.

He said the two leaders had discussed four crossing points as a package on Wednesday. The proposal was first devised during an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in Geneva, Switzerland, in March last year.

Christodoulides said the Greek Cypriot side had accepted what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had described during a recent visit as a reasonable compromise proposal, but no result had been reached.

“We continue the effort,” he said.

Erhurman’s position

Erhurman said efforts were being made to make Turkish Cypriots walk away from the table.