De Soto begins familiarisation visit

THE United Nations chief envoy for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, will pay his first visit to the island this week.

After he arrives on Tuesday, De Soto will visit both the Republic and the occupied areas before departing around March 7.

The visit, which is taking place to enable De Soto to familiarise himself with the area, will also take him along the UN-controlled buffer zone to meet with UN peacekeepers serving on the island.

He is also expected to visit the Greek and Turkish Cypriot mixed village of Pyla where the UN’s Irish contingent of civilian police is stationed.

De Soto will meet President Glafcos Clerides on March 6 and with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash later that same day.

He also plans to visit the occupied Karpass peninsula to see the Apostolos Andreas monastery, one of the sites to be repaired following an agreement reached by the UN with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides.

The other site mentioned in the agreement is the Hala Sultan Tekke, an important Muslim place of worship, on the shore of Larnaca salt lake.

The two sites have been visited by many people from both sides in recent UN-organised pilgrimages.

De Soto is also scheduled to hold a news conference on Tuesday, March 7.

Commenting on the large number of visits to Cyprus by foreign dignitaries, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said this week their purpose was to maintain a dialogue and avoid action that might jeopardise the upcoming third round of proximity talks.

The UN-organised talks are due to begin on May 23 in New York.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.