Government hopes Tatar will accept UN invite for August meeting

The government hopes that Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar will accept a UN proposal to hold a tripartite meeting on August 13, spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis.

President Nikos Christodoulides already accepted the proposal to meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York.

In statements in Armou village, in Paphos district, following a memorial service, Letymbiotis referred to the announcement made on Saturday evening by Christodoulides about the UN proposal for the meeting. 

He added that the government’s reply was evidently positive, because as he said “it is precisely due the intensive efforts undertaken by our side since the assumption of this government’s duties that we see these developments in the Cyprus problem.”

“We hope that this time there will be a positive response by Mr Tatar and that the meeting will take place on August 13, something which will allow for further progress and developments toward a resumption of negotiations always within the agreed framework,” Letymbiotis said. 

Last night, Christodoulides said “the road has one direction, because no solution is not a solution, because we do not compromise with division, because we know very well who is favoured by the passage of time and by stagnation.”

“My main concern is the end of the occupation, the liberation and the reunification of our country.”

He went on to say he has been “working tirelessly to break the deadlock” which has seen the Cyprus problem unmoved since the collapse of talks at Crans Montana in 2017.

With this in mind, he said he had undertaken “bold, specific, unilateral measures towards the Turkish Cypriots”, and added that a “positive message” had been sent to Turkey with the European Council’s resolutions on relations between Turkey and the EU; that they are “linked to developments on the Cyprus problem and the effort to solve it.”