Brussels, 31/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Alexander Downer, the special adviser on Cyprus to the United Nations secretary general, confirmed on 30 July that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are ready to resume negotiations on the reunification of Cyprus in October (see EUROPE 10845 and 10857). “Both leaders want to see this process move forward in October”, he said at the end of a meeting with President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades. The previous day Downer had met the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Dervis Eroglu. In response to a question, Downer confirmed that the parties “are looking to get the process going again in October. Yes”. The parties are giving the sign that they are ready to engage, he said.
Downer stated that “the two parties are working out at the moment how they wish to engage with each other”. There is obviously much work to be done by October, Downer said, and he stated that “the really important thing is that there is proper preparation. Not to be slaves to any particular date, but to be slaves to proper preparation so that once this process does begin it can be really successful. I think this is a wise thing to do.” He stated that the two parties had been provided with “a convergence document” on the points of contact previously identified by the former Greek Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias, the former Turkish Cypriot president, Mehmet Ali Talat, and Eroglu, who was at that time the prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (which is recognised only by Turkey). Anastasiades and Eroglu “are going to work out their own direction from here on and we will just see how it goes”, Downer added.
Downer stated that, in the coming days, he was going to meet the Greek Cypriot negotiator, Andreas Mavroyannis (see EUROPE 10890), and the Turkish Cypriot special representative, Osman Ertug. He described as “positive” the fact that each party has a representative for the negotiations because “from our point of view, that's a day-to-day interlocutor”. “We can't go and meet with the leaders every day, but we can meet with the special representatives on a much more regular basis”, he explained. (CG/transl.fl)