President Nikos Christodoulides on Sunday said “everyone recognises the Greek Cypriot side’s constructive approach” regarding efforts to solve the Cyprus problem.
Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Eoka fighter Nikolaos Yiangou, who died in 1958, he said the international community now “focuses on Turkey for the restart of meaningful talks base on the agreed framework”.
On the matter of the forthcoming informal dinner with United Nations Secretary General and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on October 15, he said the planned date came about as the result of “repeated meetings and efforts”.
“We take advantage of every contact, for Cyprus, of course staying focused on the important things, the big things. I am ready, I know the limits of compromise and our red lines, and I hope the meeting will have positive results,” he said.
In this regard, he said he is making “methodical, systematic, and coordinated” efforts for talks to restart, and that by doing so, “we managed to arouse international interest, to bring Cyprus back to the forefront of developments”.
One such method of realising this, he said, was by making the island a hub for humanitarian aid travelling to Gaza, with this bringing eyes back to the island.
“We managed, despite any adverse and negative conditions, to give new mobility to the Cyprus problem. With the European acquis communautaire and the UN Security Council resolutions as our guide and axis of the agreed framework, we are working for the much-desired liberation and reunification of our country,” he said.
He added that another step in the pathway towards the reunification of Cyprus is that “our country must be strong economically, politically, and defensively, and must be prosperous.
“The strengthening of our state is a basic condition, not only for the resumption of dialogue but also for the achievement of a functional and sustainable solution.”
The informal dinner is set to take place in New York, with Tatar’s office insisting that it will have “no agenda”, and that Tatar and Christodoulides will “exchange views in a social setting”.
Earlier, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had said the Greek Cypriot side has “absolute confidence in the correctness of our positions and of the way we articulate them, but also in the framework as determined by the UN Security Council’s resolutions.”
He added that such a framework – a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality – “can resolve the Cyprus problem and answer the concerns of our Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot compatriots”.
Tatar had said that based on the lack of common ground found between Cyprus’ two sides, “an environment could be created for a 4+1 informal consultation” – involving the Turkish Cypriots, Turkey, the Greek Cypriots, Greece, and Guterres, “to discuss how the future of Cyprus would be shaped”.
