Akel leader says ‘things must move forward’ on Cyprus problem

Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou on Tuesday said “things must move forward” on the Cyprus problem after Monday’s meeting of President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman ended without substantial progress.

“Things must move forward. Akel’s position is well known that, while preserving the negotiated convergences, we must continue further to cover the distance from what has been agreed until a solution is reached,” he said.

Such a solution, he added, will “lead to the end of the occupation and the reunification of the land and the people on the agreed basis and framework of the bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality”.

He had earlier said that he will await further information from Christodoulides regarding the content of Monday’s meeting, and expressed a modicum of optimism over the next steps, saying, “the announcement of an agreement on confidence-building measures will certainly be positive”.

This, he said, would be the case, “even though there is great difficulty, as has been observed throughout this period, in relation to even the implementation of the confidence-building measures which had been agreed”.

“For example, we have not seen the opening of any crossing points, and other issues, which have been said to have been subject to an agreement in principle, have not yet had a confidence-building measure implemented,” he said.

He added that this, “instead of creating a climate of more trust and optimism regarding the essence of the Cyprus problem, is allowing for a climate of pessimism to be strengthened”.

After Monday’s meeting, the UN had said that Christodoulides and Erhurman had “exchanged views on substance and on the way forward”, while also having “welcomed [Guterres’] sustained commitment and engagement on the Cyprus issue”.

“In this connection, they reiterated their continued readiness to supporting his efforts. They also reviewed progress achieved on trust-building initiatives. They tasked their representatives to pursue their discussing their discussions with the aim to finalising the remaining issues,” it said.

It added that they will meet again before the end of the month.

Christodoulides, meanwhile, had said that he and Erhurman had “exchanged some views on confidence-building measures, on all that has been heard from time to time”, before confirming that Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana had been tasked with “completing what can be completed”.

Erhurman made no statement about the meeting on Monday evening.