Christodoulides rejects confidence-building measures that normalise Cyprus status quo

Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday that he had told Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman he would reject any confidence-building measures that “normalise the current illegal state of affairs” regarding the Cyprus problem.

Confidence-building measures

Christodoulides said the two sides were discussing various confidence-building measures and that the Greek Cypriot side was ready to support measures which would strengthen efforts to reunify Cyprus and resolve the Cyprus problem.

He said he had made the same position public and conveyed it directly to Erhurman.

Crossing point package

On crossing points, Christodoulides said he and Erhurman had discussed the issue of four crossing points as a package on Wednesday. The proposal had first been devised during the enlarged Cyprus problem meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, in March last year.

He said the Greek Cypriot side had accepted what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had described during his recent visit as a reasonable compromise proposal.

“At the end of the day, there was no result, but we continue the effort,” he said.

Talks on crossing points have remained deadlocked over whether to divide the package of four locations agreed by the sides following the Geneva meeting.

The Greek Cypriot side proposed removing Louroujina, northwest of Larnaca, from the package and opening crossing points near Athienou and in the eastern Nicosia suburbs of Mia Milia and Aglandjia. The Turkish Cypriot side refused to discuss proposals that did not include all four locations.

Preparatory work and UN meetings

Christodoulides said preparatory work had begun based on the outcomes of Guterres’ visit and that of European Commission Cyprus problem envoy Raffaele Fitto.

He added that UN Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin would soon return to Cyprus for intensive meetings aimed at producing results.

Christodoulides said an “informal milestone” would be the UN General Assembly’s high-level week during the last week of next month, when he and Erhurman are due to hold separate meetings with Guterres in New York to brief him on progress.

He said an enlarged meeting could also be held if Guterres considered it necessary, adding that the Greek Cypriot side was fully prepared for that possibility.

“Everything we do is with the sole aim of resuming the talks from where they were interrupted,” he said.