Erhurman offers immediate Cyprus talks if Christodoulides unconditionally accepts rotating presidency
Tufan Erhurman says he is ready for formal Cyprus negotiations if Nikos Christodoulides accepts a rotating presidency, while the president accuses him of setting preconditions.
New York, United States. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said he would immediately agree to formal talks on resolving the Cyprus problem if President Nikos Christodoulides explicitly accepted, without conditions, a rotating presidency for Cyprus after a settlement.
Proposed meeting in New York
Erhurman said the subject had last come up during the United Nations’ high-level week the previous month, which both leaders attended in New York. According to his account, Christodoulides sought a three-way meeting involving the two leaders and either UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres or Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin.
He said Christodoulides had pressed for the meeting to take place before their departure for Cyprus. Holguin then told him that the Greek Cypriot side was prepared to agree to a rotating presidency, Erhurman said.
His response, he said, was that he was prepared to enter negotiations provided Christodoulides gave explicit, unconditional acceptance of that arrangement. Erhurman said he received no reply, and the proposed meeting did not take place before the leaders left New York.
Disagreement over conditions for talks
Erhurman maintained that his position remained consistent and stable, saying he was open to every form of negotiation but that adequate preparation was necessary to achieve a result. Without the requested commitment, he said, he did not want a merely symbolic gathering or an occasion for photographs, but substantive work.
His remarks followed accusations from Christodoulides that the demand for a rotating presidency amounted to an attempt to impose conditions before settlement negotiations could restart.
Christodoulides said the Turkish side was requiring advance acceptance of particular positions important to the Turkish Cypriot community, while displaying no willingness to consider or accept Greek Cypriot positions on other significant elements of the Cyprus problem.
He said this explained his repeated insistence that all such matters should be addressed through negotiations.
This news item was generated automatically by Cyprus Inform from publicly available materials. Report an error →