President Akıncı: ‘zero troops and zero guarantees’ cannot be the starting point of talks
12 June, 2017Eide to arrive in Cyprus on Thursday for further meetings
14 June, 2017
Disagreements regarding the Geneva conference should be set aside, the President’s Special Advisor on Diplomacy and EU Affairs, Erhan Erçin, said yesterday, adding that the Greek Cypriot side should concentrate on making constructive contributions to the process from now on in order to achieve positive outcomes from the conference on 28 June.
Speaking during a TV interview, Erçin referred to the document that UN Special Advisor Eide is working on, and said, “This document is not a UN document that reveals a position at the negotiations. It is a document which will determine the guidelines of the systematic work that will begin on 28 June. The participants have made clear their approaches that one side’s security should not create the perception of a threat for the other side during the technical work that took place in Mont Pelerin. The security and guarantee issue will be determined in this framework in Geneva.”
Emphasising that over 70 leaders’ meetings and 170 negotiators’ meetings have been held in last two years, as well as 3 meetings in Mont Pelerin and 2 meetings in New York, Erçin said that more than 40 rapprochement papers have also been tabled during these meetings.
“There was a request from one side for the prioritised discussion of the security and guarantee issues and for these to be concluded at the Cyprus conference in Geneva. At the recent meeting held with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York, it was agreed that this would not be possible. All issues will be discussed in parallel at two different tables at the Cyprus Conference in Geneva. From now on, we have to focus on obtaining positive outcomes from the conference” said Erçin.
Governance and power sharing, the EU, economy and property issues will be discussed at one table by Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides, while the security and guarantees issues which concern the 5 parties will be discussed at a different table during the conference in Geneva, Erçin added.