Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman has revealed for the first time the full list of confidence-building measures that UN Secretary-General António Guterres raised with the two sides, and announced plans to travel to Brussels and other European capitals after August.
Speaking on an online programme on Monday evening, Erhürman listed seven issues he said Guterres had attempted to advance: new crossing points, demining starting from the buffer zone, cooperation on irregular migration, a joint mechanism for managing crises and natural disasters, participation of young people in sporting events, European citizenship for children of mixed marriages, and the establishment of a consultation mechanism with civil society.
A new 5+1 not ruled out
Erhürman said he had not ruled out the possibility of convening a new informal 5+1 meeting before the end of Guterres's term, but said any such meeting would need to rest on substantive preparation covering the confidence-building measures, methodology and the substantive aspects of the Cyprus problem. He said the Secretary-General had secured the consent of both sides and the three guarantor powers for a new 5+1, on condition that the necessary groundwork was completed first, clarifying that this did not automatically mean resuming talks from the point where negotiations broke down at Crans-Montana.
"We do not want negotiation for the sake of negotiation, nor a 5+1 for the sake of a 5+1. We want a process that has a real chance of leading us to a solution," Erhürman said. He added that he was more optimistic because Guterres himself had now placed emphasis on methodology and a results-oriented process. "I do not want to trade in either hope or despair," he said, adding that he was ready to attend any meeting without preconceptions.
Demining dispute
Erhürman said the Turkish Cypriot side had accepted a proposal from the Secretary-General for demining to begin from the buffer zone, but that President Nikos Christodoulides had rejected it, citing security concerns. On new crossing points, he rejected reports that he had said "no" to a United Nations proposal, saying instead that he was ready to examine it "together with everything else." He raised an objection to the fact that Louroujina had been removed from the package, and that his own counterproposal on Pyla had not been accepted.
He explained that the key point of disagreement concerned a 3.3-kilometre route through the buffer zone. While expressing concern over practical difficulties, he insisted he had not "closed the door" on this proposal either, provided it was examined as part of a comprehensive agreement rather than in isolation.
No EU seat at the table
Erhürman repeated that he does not accept the European Union's participation in the 5+1 meeting as a sixth party, citing a lack of trust among Turkish Cypriots towards the EU and the veto power held by the Republic of Cyprus as a member state. He said he regarded both the earlier appointment of Johannes Hahn and the current appointment of Raffaele Fitto as the European Commission's special representative for Cyprus as an internal arrangement of the Union, without this ruling out a European contribution outside the official format.
He noted that Guterres had repeatedly linked a solution to the Cyprus problem with peace and stability in the region, and said that closer ties between the Republic of Cyprus and Israel and France had heightened the Turkish Cypriot community's security concerns, making a resolution of the problem more urgent, in his view.
Source: CNA
