President Akinci held a two hour meeting with the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Espen Barth Eide. Afterwards, Eide said that they discussed the programme for continuing the negotiations in January 2016.
“On Sunday we will be discussing exactly how the schedule for January will be. We have experienced fruitful developments on some key issues. What we are trying to do now, is to see which of the essential issues need to be tackled in the final round”, Eide said.
“In order to make those issues specific and clear and to limit them in number, we are trying to reduce differences on other aspects. So, when we eventually go to the final round of the talks, we will tackle with the most important issues”.
Referring to the property issue, Eide said that no more time should be wasted on this topic. He added that they are focusing on some other options in order to tackles other outstanding issues.
“I’m quite confident that we’re seeing the outlines of a settlement on property which I think both sides will be able to live quite comfortably with but of course I’m not ready to say exactly what that will be before the leaders have finally concluded”, Eide stated.
Last week, the focus of discussions were on economy, he said. The leaders are now getting assistance from the principal and national financial institutions, he noted.
“We have World Bank experts and International Monetary Fund experts working with us, to support the leaders in order to look at all aspects, such as the banking sector and tax issues”, Eide said
Asked about a possible referendum in March 2016, Eide said that there were no timetables for the negotiations. He emphasised however, that aim of both leaders is to work consistently to produce a successful settlement.
Regarding the issue of guarantees, Eide said that he had attended meetings in Turkey on the subject and that soon, he would be travelling to Athens for discussions.
He repeated that at some time, all parties concerned should come together to discuss the issue of guarantees.
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