TURKISH president Tayyip Erdogan will be attending an international conference on Cyprus in early January, it emerged on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the Turkish leader will represent Turkey at the January 12 conference in Geneva, where the parties aim to craft a comprehensive peace accord.
“Our president will attend this meeting,” Kalin said.
“From the outset, we were a step ahead [in the peace process]. The Turkish side maintains a highly constructive stance. If the correct steps are made, I can say that we will come very close to a settlement,” he added, according to a convenience translation of his remarks.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci decided to meet in Geneva for more talks on January 9, and on January 11 they will present their respective maps.
On January 12, a conference on Cyprus will be convened with the added participation of the three guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey and the UK), while other relevant parties shall be invited as needed, according to the United Nations.
The two leaders held in November two rounds of talks at Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, focusing on the territory aspect of the Cyprus problem. The UN announced after the end of their talks that despite their best efforts, they were unable to achieve the necessary further convergences on criteria for territorial adjustment that would have paved the way for the last phase of the talks.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Associated Press, UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said Erdogan was “ready to play ball.”
“I think Erdogan is ready to play ball and that’s what they communicate,” Eide told the AP.
But it was less clear what Turkey’s negotiating position would be, he said.
The Norwegian diplomat met with Greek and Turkish officials earlier in the week.
The UN envoy told the AP that failure in the current reunification drive may result in a change of the “status quo” on the island. He did not elaborate on what the change could entail.
Ahead of the January 12 summit, Anastasiades is set to meet with Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras in Brussels, the Cyprus News Agency reported.
The meeting, to be attended also by the two countries’ foreign ministers, will take place on December 14.
CNA said the purpose of the meet is to flesh out a joint Nicosia-Athens position on the issue of security and guarantees, prior to a mooted meeting between Tsipras and Erdogan, for which a date has yet to be confirmed.
Also on Thursday, during a budget debate in the Turkish parliament, the country’s deputy prime minister Tugrul Turkes said Turkey is the guarantor of the entire island.
“We have made no concessions. Turkey, like Britain, is a guarantor power not only for the north but for the whole island.
“We are guarantors not only of the Turkish Cypriots, but of all the island, all the territories and all the population. This agreement has not changed,” Turkes said.
