Greek Cypriot side ‘awaiting official response’ over crossing points meeting
Source: Cyprus Mail
The Greek Cypriot side is “awaiting an official response” regarding a meeting of President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar over the prospect of opening new crossing points between Cyprus’ two sides, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Saturday.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency after Tatar had said the meeting would take place on January 20 or January 21, Letymbiotis said the Greek Cypriot side has “proposed specific dates within January”, and that “we have also submitted specific proposals in the preparatory stage in view of the meeting.
“We remain committed to the effort to resume negotiations,” he said, adding that negotiations must be conducted on the basis of a bicommunal, bizonal federal solution to the Cyprus problem.
He also said the Greek Cypriot side is “awaiting official information” from the United Nations regarding UN under-secretary-general for peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo’s planned visit to the island in the early part of next year.
Her visit is set to make up part of the preparations towards a planned enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem which Tatar had said would take place in March, involving Cyprus’ two sides, its three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN.
“All efforts must focus on the resumption of a substantive and constructive dialogue, aimed at a sustainable and comprehensive settlement for the benefit of all of Cyprus’ legal residents,” Letymbiotis added.
Tatar had announced on Friday night that he would meet Christodoulides in January, though deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou swiftly denied that such a date had been set, telling the Cyprus Mail, “we do not have anything yet, we have not been informed of such a date”.
The lack of agreement over whether an agreement has been struck regarding a date for a meeting between the two leaders, which would centre on the matter of crossing points, echoes a similar contention in August over a tripartite meeting involving United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which Christodoulides had announced he had pencilled in for August 13.
Tatar responded a day later saying that he had not been invited to such a meeting, and that even if he had been invited, he would not attend, with UN spokesman Farhan Haq telling the Cyprus Mail at the time that “as far as I am aware, no invitationshave been sent”.
Letymbiotis had said this statement simply meant no formal invite had been sent by the UN, and that both Christodoulides and Tatar would have been “sounded out” over the prospect of a meeting.
Tatar and Christodoulides are yet to see eye to eye on the matter of crossing points and where they should be opened, with Tatar having criticised the Greek Cypriot side’s approach on the matter in recent weeks.
He said that while his aim is to open new crossing points linking the Republic and the north, he believes it is the Greek Cypriot side’s aim to open what would effectively be transit roads connecting the Republic with other parts of the Republic.
“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.
A crossing point near Athienou, for example, would cut journey times for people from Cyprus’ southeast to Nicosia if connected to another crossing point on the western side of the part of territory held by the north which juts southwards to encompass the village of Louroujina.
Meanwhile, while a crossing point near the Kokkina exclave would make life easier for the residents of the surrounding Greek Cypriot villages, the exclave itself has a civilian population of zero, thus raising questions of whether such a crossing point would be beneficial for Turkish Cypriots.
Tatar, however, has favoured the idea of a crossing point in Mia Milia, on the eastern edge of Nicosia.
Local politicians on both sides of the island, including Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci, the Greek Cypriot Athienou municipality, Greek Cypriot Kato Pyrgos mukhtar Nikos Kleanthous, and Turkish Cypriot Kythrea mayor Ali Karavezierler all, unsurprisingly, have come out in favour of crossing points in their own local areas.
The original article: belongs to Cyprus Mail .
