Foreign ministry urges missions to skip Turkish Cypriot briefing, report says

Nicosia, Cyprus. The foreign ministry has reportedly contacted diplomatic missions in Nicosia, urging them not to attend a Wednesday briefing on the Cyprus problem by Mehmet Dana, undersecretary to Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.

Diplomatic sources told the Cyprus Mail that missions received telephone calls asking them to avoid the event at the Home for Cooperation in the capital’s buffer zone.

Planned briefing

Dana’s briefing is intended to update diplomats on the Turkish Cypriot side’s assessment of progress and the state of play in the Cyprus problem following United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to the island last month.

Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou has already briefed diplomats on his side’s assessment following Guterres’ visit.

Dana and Menelaou are expected to meet this week. Erhurman and President Nikos Christodoulides are scheduled to meet next week, with government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis saying Christodoulides will approach the meeting with a “constructive attitude”.

Prospects for enlarged meeting

The leaders’ meeting is expected to take place with the aim of later organising an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem involving the two sides, the three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.

During his visit, Guterres said a new enlarged meeting would be convened “after adequate progress” had been achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology and the substance of the talks.

Presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos initially said that confidence-building measures “naturally help create a climate” but were “not a prerequisite” for an enlarged meeting.

UN Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin subsequently said the implementation of confidence-building measures was an “indispensable condition” before such a meeting.

“Confidence-building measures should not be seen merely as symbolic steps which improve the atmosphere between the two communities, but rather as practical tools which test the viability of a future political order,” she told Turkey’s Anka news agency.