Following her meetings in Cyprus, UN Envoy María Ángela Holguín Cuélla is set to visit Athens first, before moving on to Ankara and London.
Regarding Greece, she will hold meetings at a high level (Prime Minister, Foreign Minister), while her counterparts in Ankara have not yet been clarified, where she will immediately head next.
The discussions that the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General will have in Ankara are considered crucial for the course of developments.
In the morning Holguín will meet with the Foreign Minister, George Gerapetritis.
This will be followed by a meeting of the United Nations envoy with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The government waiting for the results of the contacts that Holguín will have in Athens, Ankara, London, and Brussels.
The Deputy Government Spokesman stated, “It is important to create the conditions for negotiations, but we will all be judged not by our intentions but by our actions. We are ready to enter negotiations tomorrow morning, based on the resolutions of the UN and the negotiating framework of Crans Montana.”
During her stay in Cyprus, Holguín made sure to meet both the former President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiades, and the former leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Mustafa Akinci.
The two were key players in the talks that led up to the collapse of the negotiations in Crans Montana. She wanted to record their experiences and see how they reached the brink of an agreement without taking the final step toward a settlement.
In the occupied territories, current Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar stated “Behind us is our huge and only 60 kilometers away motherland, Turkey,” communicating to Holguín the support he enjoys from Turkey.
The Greek Cypriot negotiator, Menelaos Menelaou, emphasized that in order to restart substantive negotiations in Cyprus, there must be tangible indications of political willingness from the Turkish side, that it is ready to discuss within the agreed framework of a solution.
Speaking to RIK’s Third Channel, he said that the statements of the Turkish side do not align with the agreed framework, and this shows that the problems have not been overcome.
However, he indicated that despite any obstacles, the only way forward is to continue the effort, and for this reason, the UN Secretary-General appointed a personal envoy for Cyprus.
Menelaos Menelaou stressed that negotiations must continue from where they left off in Crans Montana.
He pointed out that it is a matter of vital importance, which includes the basis of a solution, the convergences, as well as the framework set by the Secretary-General.
