Greek Cypriot Press: No Negotiations Until South Cyprus’ EU Presidency Ends

After Holguin’s separate meetings with the leaders and the trilateral encounter, the Greek Cypriot press devoted wide coverage to analytical and opinion pieces on the current state of the Cyprus issue.

Kathimerini: No Negotiations Until South Cyprus’ EU Presidency Ends

Kathimerini, in a commentary titled “On the Cyprus Problem, We Look Beyond September – The Tactic of the Sides Is to Buy Time Despite Not Declaring a Deadlock,” claimed that Maria Angela Holguin implicitly expressed her “anger” in the statements she made after her recent contacts.

The newspaper argued that, following Holguin’s meetings with President Tufan Erhürman and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, as well as the trilateral meeting, it has become clear that there will be no negotiations until South Cyprus’ term as holder of the EU presidency comes to an end.

According to the report, both Christodoulides and Erhürman are trying to gain time for their own reasons, while Turkey is still pursuing a two-state solution policy. The newspaper further claimed that UN Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to retire in September and that the intention of the sides in Cyprus may be to limit discussions to Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) and leave the continuation of the process to the new Secretary-General.

Former Greek Cypriot Negotiator Çelebis: Opening Crossing Points Is the Key to Restarting Talks

Haravgi newspaper reported on a statement made yesterday by former member of the Greek Cypriot negotiating team, Toumazos Çelebis, who underlined the importance of opening new crossing points.

According to the report, Çelebis said that overcoming minor political objectives and opening new crossing points is an urgent necessity, and argued that this constitutes the key to the resumption of negotiations.