President Mustafa Akinci has met with leaders and representatives of the Assembly in preparation for the forthcoming visit to Cyprus by UN Secretary-General’s temporary consultant on the Cyprus Problem, Jane Holl Lute.
Lute will meet both community leaders separately on Monday 23 July as part of her assessment on whether the Cyprus talks aimed at reaching a settlement on the island, can be resumed.
On Wednesday, President Akıncı met with CTP leader-Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman, the leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (UBP) Hussein Ozgürgün and Peoples’ Party (HP) Deputy-Interior Minister Aysegul Baybars, the leader of the Democratic Party (DP) -Finance Minister Serdar Denktaş and the leader of the Rebirth Party Erhan Arıklı.
Speaking to reporters after his 30-minute meeting with President Akıncı, CTP leader-Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman said that the United Nations envoy will prepare a report on all meetings with all parties to the Conference on Cyprus. Erhürman expressed the hope that the report will also include the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades’s deliberate attempts to drag the process on in the hope that it will work in his favour.
He said he hoped that Lute will see and understand that delaying tactics will not only mean the loss of precious time for Turkish Cypriots but Greek Cypriots as well.
The CTP leader also stated that he did not have very high expectations regarding the UN consultant’s upcoming visit.
“The UN always tries to avoid putting the blame on the two sides which always casts a shadow on the objectivity of the reports it prepares”, he added.
Leader of the main opposition National Unity Party Hüseyin Özgürgün who also spoke to reporters after his meeting with President Akıncı, pointed out that the Turkish Cypriot side has always acted with good will and adopted a constructive approach in regard to the negotiations. He accused the Greek Cypriot side of always abandoning the negotiating table. He said that he and his party were strongly opposed to holding open-ended talks.
Özgürgün stated that President Akinci will be telling the United Nations Secretary General’s consultant that any new process can not be open-ended and that there must be a beginning and end date for the talks.
He expressed the hope that the Greek Cypriot side will abandon its usual intransigence and show the same good will and constructiveness as the Turkish Cypriot side.
HP deputy and Interior Minister Aysegul Baybars who attended Wednesday’s meeting on behalf of the party’s leader, Deputy Prime Minister-Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay who is currently in London, said that the open-ended talks will only end in failure. She said that the UN consultant should bring mutually acceptable proposals to the table.
Baybars also underlined the importance of preventing the Greek Cypriot side from taking unilateral steps on the issue of hydrocarbons.
“The UN should advise the Greek Cypriot side to refrain from such actions,” said Baybars, adding that the Turkish Cypriot side could also ask for direct flights or other steps that would ease the isolation of the TRNC.
She pointed out that it was time to determine a new and different method of solving the Cyprus Problem.
BRTK
