Christofias and Eroglu to ‘break the ice’ over dinner

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will have dinner together next Tuesday at the invitation of UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer, government spokesman Stephanos Stephanou confirmed yesterday.

Stephanou said in a written statement that the two leaders’ respective advisors, George Iacovou and Kudret Ozersay, will also attend the dinner at 8.00pm, and the leaders will be accompanied by their spouses, Elsi Christofia and Meral Eroglu.

The news of the dinner – at Chateau Status restaurant in the buffer zone opposite the Ledra Palace Hotel – was broken by Eroglu himself on Friday.

He informed the Turkish Cypriot press that he had invited Christofias to dine at his home in north Nicosia, and the President had suggested instead that they have a social meeting on neutral ground in Downer’s presence.

The UN Special Adviser is said to have then proposed the current arrangement, regarding it as a good way to create a positive tone ahead of the resumption of formal talks on Wednesday, May 26.

Commenting yesterday, opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades said that rather than seeing the dinner as an unavoidable obligation, it is “something that will contribute towards getting to know one another, but most importantly, it will probably break the ice that exists.”

“The question is what will happen at the negotiating table – that’s where we’ll see if things are to our taste,” Anastassiades added.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is reported to intend soon to invite Christofias to a meeting in New York.

Following a report in Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that Ban had already invited Eroglu to New York and expects to see him in “late May or early June”, the UN Secretary General is said to want to also have a separate meeting with Christofias, in order to drive the home the message of achieving a solution of the Cyprus issue by the end of 2010.

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