Conference on Cyprus begins

The Conference on Cyprus, which was organized to find a federal solution based on the equality of the two constituent states for the Cyprus problem began yesterday in Crans-Montana.

The conference, which started in January 2017 and which has been reconvened after 5 months, will be attended by the both sides in Cyprus, as well as the guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom.

President Mustafa Akıncı and the Greek Cypriot Leader Nikos Anastasiades will participate in the conference as well as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Greece Foreign Minister Nikos Kocias and the Acting Director General, Defence and Intelligence at the British Foreign Office Jonathan Allen.

Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and Special Representative of the EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker`s Personal Representative to the UN Good Offices Mission in Cyprus, Pieter Van Nuffel will represent the EU as an observer country.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide explained that he would not present the joint document he prepared, and added that the outstanding issues will be discussed at the meeting.

The issues of “Security and Guarantees” will be also discussed on the 2nd desk, where the guarantors are also involved. The “Security and Guarantees” chapter will be discussed again at a political level.

President Mustafa Akıncı, Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with political party leaders and representatives at the working dinner.

Akıncı gave a briefing about the work of the first day of the conference and exchanged views about today’s work at the dinner.