European Commission special envoy Fitto to visit Turkey and Greece for Cyprus talks — Cyprus Mail
European Commission special envoy for the Cyprus issue Raffaele Fitto will visit Ankara in Turkey and Athens in Greece in the coming days. There, he will hold talks with the political leadership of both countries on the Cyprus issue, Cyprus Mail reports.
Support for the negotiation process
The Cyprus News Agency reported that Fitto's meetings are intended to support the process on Cyprus ahead of the next contacts between the two sides.
UN envoy for the Cyprus issue María Ángela Holguín is expected to be able to arrive in New York for the UN high-level week next week. Earlier this month, she was unable to attend scheduled meetings in Cyprus and New York due to health reasons.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides are expected to meet with the UN secretary-general in New York next week. According to a source, their bilateral meeting is also due to take place in Cyprus on Thursday.
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Positions of the sides
Christodoulides said intensive preparations are underway to achieve concrete results next week and announce the resumption of full-fledged negotiations. According to him, a document listing points of convergence reached during previous consultations could be ready within a few days.
The Cypriot president noted that the sides discussed the methodology, the content of the negotiations, and confidence-building measures. He said there is a common understanding on certain issues, while differences remain on others. Christodoulides believes that negotiations can resume from the point at which they stopped in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 2017.
Statements on trust
After the latest meeting, Erhürman called on Christodoulides to refrain from initiatives that, according to him, undermine trust. He said the sides had not reached an agreement on new confidence-building measures and also voiced complaints about external and internal initiatives by the Greek Cypriot side.
Erhürman also criticized the detention of people whom the Republic of Cyprus accuses of illegally using or selling property that belonged to Greek Cypriots before their displacement in 1974.
