President-elect of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides met the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Thursday for the first time since the presidential elections earlier in February.
The meeting took place at the residence of the head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
After the meeting, UNFICYP issued a statement, which said that Christodoulides and Tatar addressed several issues, including the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
“They had an informal discussion which was open and constructive,” the statement said. Both leaders also expressed their sympathies for the victims of the earthquakes, including those of the Turkish Cypriots.
🎥 This morning, @ErsinrTatar and @Christodulides, met for the first time under the auspices of the Deputy Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on #Cyprus, Mr. Colin Stewart. #UNCyprusTalks @UNDPPA pic.twitter.com/CjP884R7ug
— UN Cyprus (@UN_CYPRUS) February 23, 2023
Christodoulides was elected the new president of Cyprus following the runoff elections on the island on February 14.
Christodoulides secured 51.91 percent of the vote while his opponent Andreas Mavroyiannis got 48.09 percent.
Cyprus President-elect: Didn’t hear anything new then from Turkish Cypriot leader
After the meeting with Tatar, Christodoulides said that he did not hear anything he didn’t expect from the Turkish Cypriot leader.
He said that he is aware of the different approaches to solving the Cyprus problem and the core differences, but also he is ready to do whatever possible to overcome the impasse reached in Cyprus talks, within the agreed framework of the UN resolutions and with the EU playing a leading role.
Tatar told the press in the north of Cyprus that Christodoulides offered to meet him for another informal meeting in the coming days, “as, for official talks to start, they [the Greek Cypriot side] will have to accept the sovereign equality of the TRNC.”
The Turkish-Cypriot leader has threatened to open the occupied city of Varosha which has remained a ghost town since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
This move by the Turkish Cypriots would be illegal. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it “considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible” and calls for “the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations.”
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