Progress on four of the six points raised by the UN Secretary-General was noted during today's meeting at the old Nicosia airport between the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar. This was stated by President Christodoulides himself upon his return to the Presidential Palace, announcing a new meeting with Mr. Tatar before Easter.
In his statements at the Presidential Palace, returning from the old Nicosia airport, President Christodoulides initially noted that today's meeting took place at the initiative of the Greek Cypriot side, following the informal conference in Geneva.
As he said, there has indeed been progress, on four issues, and he specifically stated, "we agreed to establish a Technical Committee for Youth with 12 members from each side. We will propose the names to the United Nations by April 15."
The second issue, he said, "concerns environmental issues. The Technical Committee on the Environment will discuss specific issues in continuation of the proposal we made in the discussions held in Geneva."
As the President said, "the third issue concerns the issue of the restoration of cemeteries. The Technical Committee for Monuments will proceed."
He noted that "the fourth issue concerns demining. What was agreed is to have an exchange through the negotiators regarding which points we wish to have demining done."
Regarding the fifth point, that of roadblocks, President Christodoulides said that there was progress, but no result. As he explained, the discussion was better than the last time, there was some progress, but without, however, anything to announce, while the discussion will continue at the level of negotiators.
In relation to the last issue, which concerns the issue of energy, the President of the Republic noted that there are some demands that cannot be accepted by our side, as they go beyond the framework that the European Union itself has set, which has expressed interest in financially supporting this effort.
President Christodoulides said that, in addition to these issues, he himself, on his own initiative, raised two other issues. One, he said, concerns the issue of the implementation of what has been agreed in Pyla and the importance of implementing what was agreed, and the second was some specific requests from the Maronite community, which will be examined "and we will see if there will be a positive response."
The President stated that he requested a new meeting as soon as possible, before Easter, which will happen. "We expect this week, as we have been informed by the United Nations, which is in the bureaucratic procedures, for the announcement regarding the personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General."
Today, he added, all the moves and actions of the Greek Cypriot side were taken within the framework of what was done and discussed in Geneva, with the sole aim of resuming the talks on the basis of the agreed framework.
"Special reports were made by both myself and Mr. Tatar in relation to what we discussed in Geneva and we are here, we know where we want to get to, we know where we want to go, we know how we will reach our goal and this effort continues," he stated.
Asked where the positions of the Turkish Cypriot side on the issue of energy deviate from the European framework, the President of the Republic said that "our position is that any Confidence Building Measures should strengthen the effort to resolve the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework."
He added that no MNE, which can be used as infrastructure or used to strengthen arguments for another form of solution to the Cyprus problem, "and I am obviously referring to the two states, cannot be accepted, and this is also the position of the European Union, as expressed in the well-known letter of the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, but also in the specific project that the EU is ready to finance."
Asked what new developments emerged on the issue of roadblocks, President Christodoulides said that a substantive discussion took place today. "I explained how important the issue of Pyroi-Athienou and the issue of Kokkina are to us, with specific references to the distance, with specific responses to concerns that were expressed," he said.
He added that a discussion took place, and he himself stated that he believes that the discussion was better than the previous one, which was a simple denial from the Turkish Cypriot side. "A discussion took place, we had arguments. In fact, we showed specific maps and these will continue, the discussions will continue at the level of negotiators," he said.
Asked if Mr. Tatar is no longer negative, President Christodoulides said that he does not want to speak on behalf of Mr. Tatar. “But I can tell you that there was a better discussion than the last time. We do not have a positive result, I explained why Pyroi-Athienou is important, why the issue of Kokkina is important, how the residents of the areas will benefit and when we talk about the MOU, the entire Cypriot people should benefit. I understand the importance of Mia Milia for him, what I asked for and explained, I repeat, using a map, is how important these two roadblocks are,” he said.
Asked if the map he presented was the same one he presented in a previous debate, the President responded positively. "Yes, with more specific references, with distances, with how it will work in both cases, both in the Pyroi-Athienou issue and in the Kokkina issue, which concerns a very short distance, which will greatly facilitate the lives of the residents of the area," he said.
Asked whether Mr. Tatar will expect answers from Turkey on the issue of the Maronite villages, Mr. Christodoulides said that he did not tell him how he would proceed after the end of the meeting they had today, but that several of the issues discussed require the consent of Turkey and the Turkish occupation army.
Finally, when asked whether there has been a response to the request for exclusive engagement with the Cyprus issue by the UN Secretary-General's envoy, President Christodoulides said that this is being done on the part of the United Nations in order to obtain the consent of the Republic of Cyprus.
"These clarifications were given about the need for someone to deal exclusively with this, so that in July we have a result, and the result we are aiming for is the resumption of substantive talks," he said, adding that there cannot be an appointment of an envoy who will deal with or visit Cyprus and the region once or twice every two months.
"We want someone who will exclusively deal with this issue and help restart the talks. These are what we conveyed to the United Nations and I must say that the United Nations itself understands the importance. The UN Secretary-General was present in Geneva, we agreed on some things with the Secretary-General, this meeting will take place again at the end of July with the Secretary-General and there should be results," he concluded.
Source: KYPE
