Eroglu seeks tripartite conference

TURKISH CYPRIOT leader Dervis Eroglu has asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to host a tripartite conference with himself and President Demetris Christofias in New York this September.

According to Turkish Cypriot press yesterday, Eroglu suggested when he met Ban on Monday that the UNSG host a “Cyprus summit” on September 3 to help push the talks process forward and reach a solution by the end of the year.

He was also quoted stressing the need for putting into EU primary law any solution reached at the negotiating table. “Otherwise, similar attempts to resolve the Cyprus problem and the property issue at courts will continue,” he said.

Eroglu rejected outright the Greek Cypriot proposal for an international conference with the participation of UN Security Council members, the EU, Turkey, Greece, the Cyprus Republic and representatives of the two communities, saying: “It is out of the question for us to accept such an offer. The Cyprus question is a problem concerning the three guarantor powers and the two peoples of the island.”

The Turkish Cypriot press yesterday reported that Ban saw “positively” Eroglu’s proposal for a three-party meeting as a precursor to a five party meeting.

The government spokesman was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Meanwhile one of Eroglu’s aides wrote a comment piece in Kibris saying that UN officials were preparing measures to take in case the negotiations fail to make progress by the end of the year. The first step is to close down the UN Good Offices, while a second course, he wrote, is an “agreed division” as opposed to reunification in 2011.

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.