Holguin has ‘no plans’ to visit Cyprus
United Nations Envoy Maria Angela Holguin currently has “no plans” to visit Cyprus, UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday.
“Regarding the question posed yesterday on [Holguin’s] plans to visit Cyprus, we wish to clarify that no visit to Cyprus is planned at the moment,” he said.
However, he said, “she will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders outside of Cyprus in the coming weeks”.
He had said on Tuesday that in the event of plans being made, “we will inform everyone accordingly”.
It had been reported earlier this month that Holguin’s mandate as envoy in Cyprus had been extended by three months, though Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar was keen to deny those reports at the time.
He said e had given his consent to Holguin’s appointment provided that it was limited to six months, and that he will continue to “work constructively” with her in the remaining one month of those six.
Holguin had most recently visited Cyprus in May, but her final meeting with Tatar lasted just 20 minutes, with relations between the pair seemingly having soured.
Tatar later criticised Holguin’s modus operandi while in Cyprus, accusing her of “provoking the opposition and turning me into a target.”
“Her holding of meetings with some opposition groups is outside her job description. This is not a nice thing. She visited [former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa] Akinci twice. Is this even possible?” he said.
“This sort of thing is not something that can be accepted diplomatically. She is taking steps to provoke the opposition and wear me down. I conveyed my discomfort to the appropriate authorities.”
He went on to say, “they targeted me with statements like ‘Tatar ran away from a tripartite meeting’. They never blame Turkey, they say Tatar ran away. Tatar is not alone. I evaluate every stage of this policy together with Turkey.”
He added, “She cannot gauge public opinion going from door to door. She has no right. It is not nice of her to go to the most extreme opponents and provoke, challenging the established order of the country,” he said.
“Frankly, I was annoyed by that … It is Holguin’s duty to investigate if there is common ground. It is already clear that there is not.”
Holguin herself had told news website Kibris Postasi she had been “surprised” Tatar had rejected a proposal of a tripartite meeting with herself and Christodoulides.