Turkish Cypriot leader Erhürman meets UN envoy — Cyprus Mail

In New York, United States, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman met with the UN envoy on the Cyprus issue, María Ángela Holguín. The meeting took place on September 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Cyprus Mail reports. Neither Erhürman nor Holguín made public statements afterward.

Diplomatic contacts in New York

The meeting took place amid active contacts on the Cyprus issue. Earlier this week, Holguín met with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis.

Erhürman and Christodoulides were due to meet separately with UN Secretary-General António Guterres later this week. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had already met with Guterres on Tuesday. He also held a meeting with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who later met with Christodoulides.

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Conditions for an expanded meeting

After talks with Christodoulides, Holguín said that the UN continues its efforts on the Cyprus issue. At the same time, according to the publication, there had been no concrete progress on the matter since Guterres' July visit to the island.

At that time, the UN secretary-general promised to hold an expanded meeting involving the island's two sides, the three guarantor states — Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom — and the UN after sufficient progress had been made on confidence-building measures, the methodology and the substance of negotiations.

Since July, Christodoulides and Erhürman have met three times, but have not achieved concrete progress. The sides retain differences over the meaning of political equality, points of convergence and the methodology of negotiations. Erhürman said that the Turkish Cypriot side seeks to hold a “five plus one” meeting after preparatory meetings in Nicosia and negotiations which, in his view, should lead to a settlement.