The United Nations has completed the convergence document intended to serve as the basis for resuming negotiations on the Cyprus problem, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday. He described the development as positive. Speaking a day before his meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader, he said there is a window of opportunity that the government is working to turn into a resumption of talks from where they left off in 2017.
The President was briefing Morphou Mayor Victoras Hadjiavraam, members of the Morphou Municipal Council and foreign guests who had taken part in the municipality’s anti-occupation event, at the Presidential Palace.
A window of opportunity
President Christodoulides said a major effort is under way to restart negotiations. Although that goal has not yet been achieved, he compared the situation when his government took office in March 2023 with where things stand today.
“I justifiably believe there is a window of opportunity, on which we continue to work so that it can be turned into concrete developments. And the concrete development is one: the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in 2017,” he said.
The UN convergence document
The President said the convergence document, “which will form the basis for the resumption of negotiations,” has been completed by the UN.
In his view, the document should be submitted to all parties so that, once they have commented on it, it can serve as the basis for restarting negotiations.
New proposals ahead of Tuesday’s meeting
President Christodoulides will meet the Turkish Cypriot leader on Tuesday. He said the meeting was called “at our own initiative, to discuss in even more concrete terms how we achieve this goal.” He added that some elements are, in his view, moving in the right direction and could form the basis for resuming negotiations.
He referred to the 19-point proposal he submitted to the Turkish Cypriot leader at their last meeting. He stressed that these are new, very specific suggestions, different from those submitted in the past, which had not received a positive response from the Turkish side.
“So we are not entrenching ourselves behind positions we know have already been rejected. We came with new suggestions and new ideas on methodology, on substance and on confidence-building measures, and I am pleased that they were positively received by the UN. This was the approach of the UN Secretary-General in New York,” he said.
He said the Turkish Cypriot side’s response at the last meeting, when he presented the proposals, was that they would be studied. “There was neither approval nor rejection. I hope that tomorrow we will have a substantive dialogue on these new suggestions, so that the conditions can be created,” he said.
The UN Secretary-General and the succession
The President repeated that there is a window of opportunity with the current UN Secretary-General. He said the Secretary-General has told them he would like to make full use of it. “We hope it can be achieved within this period. At the same time, we are in contact with the candidates for the new UN Secretary-General,” he said.
He noted that various names are being mentioned. Several processes are under way at the Security Council, he said, which have not yet produced a specific result, and the government is also working in that direction.
He added that the form of the solution does not change when the UN Secretary-General changes. Whoever the new Secretary-General is, he said, acts under a mandate from the UN Security Council. “He acts on the basis of the mandate given to him by the UN Security Council.”
The role of the European Union
President Christodoulides said the EU can play a decisive role and that the political will for this exists. He pointed to the appointment of European Commission Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto as Special Envoy. He said the role concerns not only the content of a possible solution to the Cyprus problem but also EU-Turkey relations.
“We know, despite what is said publicly from time to time, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in the completely opposite direction, that there is interest on the part of Turkey in a new start in EU-Turkey relations, in upgrading EU-Turkey relations, specifically on the issue of the Customs Union,” he said.
He said Cyprus is ready to discuss this and has submitted some very specific suggestions to Mr Fitto, as well as to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council. He said he discussed the matter again very recently in Croatia, on the sidelines of the meeting of Euro-Mediterranean states.
He asked those present, “as friends of Cyprus, as friends of Morphou, to help us, each from your own position, in this great effort to resume negotiations.”
Morphou and the territorial issue
Speaking after the briefing, Mr Hadjiavraam was asked whether he also sees a window of opportunity. He said the end of the current UN Secretary-General’s term is an important milestone. He referred to the momentum that began with Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to Cyprus in July. If that becomes real momentum, he said, and the two leaders finally find a middle ground to reach a five-party meeting, there is certainly a “window for a solution”.
There is always room, he added, provided there are negotiations. He noted that nine years have passed without negotiations since Crans-Montana. “Fortunately we are one step away, from what I hear at least, from going to negotiations. If we succeed, there is also the opportunity to reach a possible solution to the Cyprus problem,” he said.
He was told that the Morphou area is being developed, with infrastructure such as a new hospital and cold storage facilities. Asked whether he was concerned that Morphou might not be on the table in talks on the territorial issue, he replied that “it will be in the territorial chapter.” He recalled that every President, from the first, Archbishop Makarios, to the current one, Nikos Christodoulides, “has stated unequivocally that Morphou will be under Greek Cypriot administration.”
The development taking place, he said, is “what we have been warning about for a decade. We wanted to stay ahead of events, but you understand that development has gone ahead.” The mayor referred to a “university” built in the Morphou area, which he said “is said to belong to the Erdoğan family.” He said the facts on the ground, on top of the 52 years that have passed and which in themselves create a problem, “make the solution of the Cyprus problem even more difficult.”
Asked whether he has the President’s assurance on Morphou, Mr Hadjiavraam said President Christodoulides had stated it in his speech last year. “I think it was an omission on his part not to state it this year, but it stands,” he added.
Asked whether a negotiation aimed at the return of Morphou is feasible while changes are being made on the ground, he replied: “It will be a thorn. That is a given. Especially as the Turkish Cypriot side, and by extension Turkey, is asking for Morphou Bay to remain under its own administration, this is a major problem for the solution of the Cyprus problem.”
