PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot Leader Dervis Eroglu, yesterday presented documents on property and territory issues during their latest meeting.
Speaking to reporters following the meeting, the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Alexander Downer said both sides had presented documents and they decided that ”it would be productive for the representatives to take on the discussion henceforth in relation to these documents in order to ensure not just clarifications but with a view to come into convergences,” he added.
He went on to say that “there was a positive atmosphere today and an encouraging atmosphere” and that the representatives would on Monday ”to take this work forward.”
Downer said that he would be travelling to Greece on Monday to meet Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Greek government. “So I won’t be here for the representatives’ meeting but it’s important for us in the United Nations to keep in touch with the three guarantor powers,” he added.
“I went to Turkey fairly recently and it’s time I went to Greece. The Foreign Minister invited me to go and I look forward to meeting up with him,” he said.
The UN envoy said that next Wednesday he would be discussing the Cyprus issue with the UN Security Council. “I won’t be travelling to New York but I’ll be meeting with them through cyber space video and a telecommunications link up,” he said.
“We think it is important to keep in constant contact with the Security Council, that members of the Security Council are properly briefed on what is happening at the negotiations and we think this negotiation, while Cyprus-owned and Cyprus-led, has of course very great implications for the broader international community,” he noted.
He added that “after all they are under the auspices of the UN, under the auspices of the Security Council resolutions, so the international community has a great interest in how these negotiations are progressing and it’s an important part of my work to make sure that they are fully briefed.”
Asked about the content of the documents exchanged between the two sides, Downer said that the leaders have been discussing territory and property, adding that there are a lot of issues within the context of territory “which go way beyond just a question of maps and figures.”
“Because obviously if you are going to transfer the boundaries, that is going to have implications for people and all of that has to be thought about and those people that may be affected by any changes in boundaries have to be looked after in consistence with not just law but in a way more importantly just consistent with good, decent human practice. So there has to be thought given to all those sort of things,” he noted.
He said that “when it come to maps and figures both sides had agreed that they will discuss maps and figures at the end or towards the end of the process,” adding that ”they have their own thoughts about these things of course but maps and figures both leaders have agreed to leave at the end of the process”.
Downer said that the personal representative of the EU Commission President for Cyprus Jorge Cesar das Neves met with the leaders at the beginning of the meeting.
He said that Jorge Cesar das Neves would meet with Turkish Cypriot politicians as he did with Greek Cypriot ones.
