Holguin has productive meeting with Tatar

UN secretary-general personal envoy Maria Holguin had a productive meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Monday, ahead of meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides.

Holguin will be meeting with Christodoulides in the afternoon, as part of the second round of contacts she is holding on the island, in hopes of finding common ground to restart negotiations of the Cyprus problem.

Speaking after meeting with Tatar, Holguin said she had a “very good meeting” with Tatar, and that she hoped the rest of her meetings this week with the chambers of commerce and civil society would be likewise.

“I hope can continue here, and continue to understand the issue, and think about it more as the Cyprus issue, than the Cyprus problem,” she said.

Meanwhile after the meeting, Tatar reiterated his position on having sovereign equality and equal international standing for the Turkish Cypriot side in order to restart talks.

Tatar noted that the Republic of Cyprus, created in 1960 after the British left, was based on an agreement that allowed the two communities to live together while ensuring a balance between them.

However, according to him, the Greek Cypriot side “sought to dismantle this democracy, which bore federal characteristics”.

Criticising the UN decision in 1964 to recognise the Republic of Cyprus as the only legitimate government on the island, as well as what he described as Cyprus’ “unilateral” accession to the EU in 2004, Tatar claimed that “these decisions are unfair to Turkish Cypriots.”

Tatar insisted on the need for concrete steps towards sovereign equality before any resumption of talks. He said he was ready to consider new approaches on this basis with the UN secretary-general envoy.

President Nikos Christodoulides will meet with Holguin on Monday afternoon.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Christodoulides will discuss “very specifically” some issues while also expecting to be briefed by Holguin.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos stressed that any discussion over common ground with the Turkish Cypriot side would not stray outside of the UN framework, regardless of intractable statements by the other side.

He added he had discussed the issue at length with president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and that following Holguin’s other contacts, including in Brussels, he hoped there would soon be “positive developments”.