The new President of South Cyprus, yesterday held a press conference where he answered questions about his policy around the Cyprus negotiations.
His main principle will be to secure the rights of Greek Cypriots without prejudicing the rights of Turkish Cypriots.
He also said that the chief negotiator would be nominated by the Greek National Council. He asked for patience on this process as there were many candidates but that these were being narrowed down. However, he felt that given that the candidate would have to be approved by a number of parties, he did not think that the negotiator would be in place for UN Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alexander Downer’s visit on March 11th.
Greek Cypriot newspapers are pointing out that Turkey favours the negotiations on the Turkish Cypriot side to be carried out by the TRNC Minister of Foreign Affairs and that this would weaken the position of the President Eroglu and strengthen that of Prime Minister Kucuk, who is widely regarded as Turkey’s man.
