Cyprus negotiators ‘to meet on Thursday’ to discuss crossing points
Source: Cyprus Mail
The chief negotiators from Cyprus’ two sides will meet on Thursday, according to reports on Saturday.
The Cyprus News Agency reported that Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s special representative Gunes Onar and Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou will “in all probability” meet to “continue the discussion” on the matter of potentially opening new crossing points between the island’s two sides.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had announced at the end of last month’s enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem that four new crossing points will open between the island’s two sides as a result of the meeting.
Undersecretary of the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ Mustafa Lakadamyali confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that each of the island’s two sides has been given the right to open two crossing points.
He said the Turkish Cypriot side has elected to open a crossing point in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia and in the village of Louroujina, which will connect to nearby Lympia.
He added that President Nikos Christodoulides will propose two other crossing points “in the coming period”, but that it is not yet clear where they will be.
“It is understood that they are not the transit passages previously proposed, but two new crossing points,” he said, referring to the previously suggested crossing points near Athienou and Kokkina.
Tatar had earlier protested that those two crossing points were “transit roads” connecting the Republic with other parts of the Republic, rather than crossing points designed to facilitate passage between the island’s two sides.
“We wanted a crossing point at Mia Milia, while the Greek Cypriot side wanted to transit through the Turkish military areas near Athienou and Kokkina. This is unacceptable,” he said in December.
The original article: belongs to Cyprus Mail .
