Turkish Cyprus president to meet UN chief in New York

NICOSIA

Turkish Cyprus President Tufan Erhürman is set to travel to New York to meet U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Feb. 11, as he pushes for a change in how any renewed Cyprus talks would be launched.

The meeting comes after a series of contacts between Erhürman and Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides under U.N. auspices, including sessions involving the U.N. chief’s personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin.

Guterres has previously said recent engagements opened “a new window of opportunity” for the long-stalled process.

Erhürman has been calling for formal negotiations to begin only after agreement on what he describes as a four-point “methodology” aimed at preventing another open-ended process.

His demands include acceptance of political equality as a starting principle — including the idea of a rotating presidency — confirmation of past convergences reached in earlier rounds, a time limit for negotiations and a mechanism to prevent a return to the status quo if talks collapse again.

He is also expected to tell Guterres that progress has been limited even on confidence-building steps, a concern Holguin has also voiced publicly in recent days.