Brussels, 10/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey) Dervis Eroglu will meet on Tuesday 11 February as part of the discussions for a solution to the Cypriot conflict. The parties have agreed on a joint statement for continuing the negotiations, they announced on 7 February. “The effort to conclude a joint statement is the beginning of a hard and laborious effort finally to reach a solution on Cyprus. The statement is not the end, it is not the solution”, said Anastasiades on 7 February.
According to the statement, “the settlement will be based on a bi-zonal and bi-communal federation with political equality as defined in the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the high level agreements. The unified island of Cyprus (…) must have a single and international legal personality and a simple sovereignty (…). There will be a single Cypriot citizenship governed by federal law.” The text states that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. A possible agreement will have to be adopted by separate referendums conducted at the same time, the text states.
The meeting between Anastasiades and Eroglu is due to take place at the United Nations conference centre, situated in the buffer zone, and will be attended by Lisa Buttenheim, the UN secretary general's special representative for Cyprus.
Meanwhile, the Greek and Turkish foreign affairs ministers, Evangelos Venizelos and Ahmet Davutoglu respectively, spoke on the telephone on 8 February. “All the parties concerned - particularly the guarantor powers - should support the negotiations”, Davutoglu stated (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)