Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said his side was ready to agree on six of the seven confidence-building measures proposed by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, but the disagreement over new crossing points remained. He said there was no basis for a 2+1 meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Guterres without a commitment to meaningful progress.
Erhurman told ANKA Review that neither a meeting between the two leaders and Guterres nor a broader 5+1 meeting involving the three guarantor countries had been scheduled in New York. The Turkish Cypriot side was open to both formats, he said, but the meetings needed advance preparation and progress in Nicosia to produce results.
Guterres had called for meaningful progress on confidence-building measures, the methodology for negotiations and substantive issues before convening a new meeting, Erhurman said. He warned that an unprepared meeting could repeat the failures of past talks, including the 2004 Annan Plan process and negotiations that ended in Crans-Montana in 2017.
The seven measures raised by Guterres cover opening new crossing points, demining, establishing a joint disaster-response mechanism, cooperating on irregular migration, sports, resolving European Union citizenship issues affecting children of mixed marriages, and putting a civil-society structure into operation.
Erhurman said the Turkish Cypriot side was ready to agree on six, with the crossing-points issue unresolved.
The dispute centres on which routes should be opened and whether the proposals should be considered as a package. Erhurman said the Greek Cypriot side had made no progress on the seven issues and had then presented a 19-point package. He accused Christodoulides of taking no concrete steps in talks and introducing new political conditions, despite publicly expressing readiness to pursue confidence-building measures.
Erhurman said the two sides’ negotiators, Mehmet Dana and Menelaos Menelaou, met in New York with U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo and U.N. envoy for Cyprus María Ángela Holguín. No progress was made on any issue during those talks, he said.
Christodoulides requested a 2+1 meeting with Guterres during his meeting with the U.N. chief, Erhurman said.
When Holguín conveyed the request, Erhurman asked whether the Greek Cypriot side had committed to meaningful progress. He received no positive response, he said. He also asked Holguín for her assessment of the talks and, after hearing that it was not positive, reiterated that he opposed a meeting without a basis for progress.
“The intention was to create the impression that there was a reason and a basis for the meeting, and that we had rejected it. We did not fall for that,” Erhurman said. “Both the secretary-general and his representative saw that there was no progress and no intention to make progress.”
Erhurman said confidence-building measures required not only new areas of cooperation but also an end to actions that undermine trust.
He cited attempts to cancel two festivals and a Barcelona football academy youth camp, alleged interference with contacts in the buffer zone, and European Parliament resolutions.
