UN envoy presses Cyprus leaders on measures after two-year impasse

UN Cyprus envoy Maria Angela Holguin urged Cyprus’ leaders on Saturday, in a newspaper interview, to implement confidence-building measures after two years without agreement on steps including a crossing point.

The two-year pause is modest beside what Holguin called “decades of division,” but it matters because UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in July tied any enlarged meeting to “adequate progress” on three tracks.

Holguin told Politis that confidence-building measures “need to be implemented” to “create trust and demonstrate with facts the actual political will” for rapprochement between the island’s two sides.

“If, over the past two years, the parties have been unable to agree on a crossing point to facilitate communication, demining, or a joint effort to eliminate plastic pollution across the island … how can they agree on a political, economic and social model capable of overcoming decades of division and growing distance between the two communities?” she said.

Holguin said divisions were becoming sharper, but added that the UN had kept staff on the island and remained prepared to assist. She said the choice to restart negotiations belongs to President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.

The envoy pointed to bicommunal technical committees as an area where cooperation continues. She also said the UN had reviewed documents that may help if formal talks resume, but would not publish its compilation of prior convergences before negotiations start.

The process question has become a focus for the UN. Holguin said the UN had invited Christodoulides and Erhurman to discuss negotiation methodology during their weekly meetings, arguing that procedure and substance should be kept separate.

“The way negotiations are conducted is fundamental to their success,” she said. Holguin said a functional procedure could cover principles including confidentiality, communication rules and the formula that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

The Cyprus Mail reported that relations between the sides have frayed since the summer. It cited August and September incidents including diplomatic briefings, cancelled or contested Turkish Cypriot community events, and a Cyprus Forum dispute over how Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci was described.

Cyprus Forum executive president Nicolas Kyriakides told the Cyprus Mail that “official requests from officials” had challenged the use of “mayor” for Harmanci. The Cyprus Mail also reported that the Republic of Cyprus’ permanent representation to the UN later urged foreign diplomats in New York not to meet Turkish Cypriots.

The Cyprus Mail reported that the two leaders have held four meetings since Guterres visited in July. Holguin said she would continue her work until the end of her mandate and still believed a comprehensive settlement was possible.

No date has been set for an enlarged meeting; Guterres’ July condition was progress on confidence-building measures, methodology and the substance of talks.

Source: newspaper interview reported by Cyprus Mail, Oct. 17.