Mavroyannis: Cyprus Settlement Could Be Reached Within Weeks If Agreement Is Reached on Guterres’ Six Points

Speaking to the Greek Cypriot press, Mavroyannis argued that once consensus is achieved on the Secretary-General’s framework, the remaining steps would not require a long negotiating process.

Referring to a meeting scheduled between the two leaders on Tuesday, Mavroyannis said he hoped they would overcome what he described as “meaningless excuses” and minor issues that have been used to justify the current stalemate in the talks.

Commenting on the disagreement between the Greek Cypriot side and the United Nations over an opinion article shared with the press by the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, Mavroyannis said the tension with the UN was worrying.

He also rejected statements by President Erhurman suggesting that he shared the same starting point as Turkey, describing such remarks as “trivial excuses” and insisting that the basis for a solution was clear and should be respected.

On President Nikos Christodoulides’ request that all convergences reached up to Crans-Montana be officially recorded by the UN, Mavroyannis said the proposal was unproductive. He argued that this approach would indefinitely delay the start of substantive negotiations and could undermine achievements already made. Reopening issues that had not been reconfirmed by all sides, he added, would amount to restarting negotiations from scratch.

Regarding President Erhurman’s demand that rotating presidency be accepted before the resumption of official talks, Mavroyannis said that the proposals of July 5, 2017 already included rotating presidency. He claimed that the Greek Cypriot side had accepted it in writing as part of political equality, provided it was satisfied on other issues such as guarantees, troops, territory and property.

Mavroyannis said the Turkish Cypriot side could not ignore this and should not turn it into a procedural issue in order to avoid making reciprocal concessions.

Beyond the issue of rotating presidency, he argued that most other aspects of the negotiations were nearly resolved. He claimed that after the final dinner at Crans-Montana, only two key issues remained unclear: what would happen in case of disagreement between the president and vice president, and which matters would require a positive vote.

On guarantees and troops, Mavroyannis said the UN Secretary-General had proposed the immediate abolition of guarantees and intervention rights, provided that an effective implementation and monitoring mechanism was established. On military forces, he said the Secretary-General had suggested reducing them to the levels предусмотрed in the Treaty of Alliance.

Mavroyannis stressed that if a strategic agreement could be achieved on the six points put forward by the UN Secretary-General, completing the final stage of a settlement would be only a matter of weeks.

He also said that all proposed crossing points could be opened, adding that difficulties cited by the Turkish army in certain areas could be overcome without altering the current situation.