Cyprus negotiators to meet before leaders’ tripartite with Holguin

Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and undersecretary to the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Dana will hold a one-on-one meeting before President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin hold a tripartite meeting on Thursday, according to reports on Sunday.

The Cyprus News Agency reported that Dana and Menelaou will meet wither on Tuesday or Wednesday, with the pair having most recently convened last Wednesday.

Christodoulides and Erhurman are then set to jointly visit the offices of the Committee on Missing Persons on Thursday morning, before holding their tripartite meeting with Holguin later in the day.

In addition, both Christodoulides and Erhurman are expected to meet European Union envoy for the Cyprus problem Johannes Hahn in the coming days, with Hahn also expected to hold a meeting with Holguin.

Holguin arrived on the island late last week and has thus far held one-on-one meetings with Erhurman on Friday and with Christodoulides on Saturday.

After his meeting with Holguin, Erhurman lamented a “lack of results” in efforts to resolve the issue of long tailbacks and congestions at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point in western Nicosia.

He said he had told Christodoulides at their meeting last month that “problems could be significantly alleviated” at the crossing point “if the three cabins on the southern side were staffed permanently”.

However, he said, the police cabins on the southern side of the crossing point are “still not working efficiently”.

In addition to the matter of the existing Ayios Dhometios crossing point, he said that he and Holguin had also discussed potential new crossing points in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia, in the village of Louroujina, between Nicosia and Larnaca, and in the town of Athienou.

On Saturday, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis after Christodoulides’ meeting with Holguin that Christodoulides “has answers for all issues” related to ongoing talks on the Cyprus problem, including Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman’s four points to restart negotiations.

 He said that discussions on Erhurman’s four points, and other matters related to restarting formal negotiations, will be discussed at a tripartite meeting involving Christodoulides, Holguin and Erhurman on Thursday.

“The goal remains the resumption of substantive negotiations from the point at which they were interrupted in Crans-Montana,” he said in reference to the most recent round of negotiations which collapsed in the Swiss ski resort in 2017.

Erhurman’s four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” – a term he resents – foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements, and that the UN guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.