The President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides in a letter addressed to the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, requested for a meeting to be arranged with the Turkish Cypriot leader and also for the appointment of a special representative who will investigate the prospects of resuming the negotiation process for a Cyprus solution.
In statements to the Press after visiting a school to mark the beginning of the school year, President Christodoulides said that he has been informed by the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis, about his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan in Ankara, and it seems that prospect to resume talks on the Cyprus issue are being created, adding that “everything will be judged on the basis of what we have in front of us”.
The President noted that his meeting with UNSC Antonio Guterres, has been arranged in New York for Friday, September 22nd, during his visit in New York for the UN General Assembly.
He also said that on Wednesday he addressed the Secretary General in writing, “requesting that he proceed with this meeting with the T/C leader”.
“It was also a message that we conveyed through our Permanent Representation as well as at the meeting I recently had with the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and I hope there will be a response”, he said.
Asked if his letter to the Secretary-General focused only on arranging a meeting, the President said that “I was focused on the subject of the meeting and of course on the Secretary-General responding to the Security Council’s call for the appointment of a special representative, who will investigate the prospects for restarting the talks”.
Asked if a UN official is expected to visit Cyprus before his departure for New York, the President said “I do not expect a visit to Cyprus from the United Nations Secretariat. We are in contact with Mr Stewart on this issue, and so is our Permanent Representation in New York”.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
