President Erhürman: ‘I want a solution, not a meeting for the sake of it’

President Tufan Erhürman has defended his decision not to attend a proposed three-way meeting in New York, saying talks with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and UN Secretary-General António Guterres would have served little purpose without a realistic prospect of progress.

Speaking at a press conference after returning from New York, Erhürman said he remained ready to meet Christodoulides regularly in Nicosia and to take part in a broader meeting if it could help move the Cyprus issue towards a settlement.

“I will not hold a three-way meeting just for the sake of it. I will not hold a 5+1 meeting just for the sake of it, and I will not start negotiations just for the sake of it. I want a solution,” he said.

Erhürman rejected suggestions that a three-way meeting had been planned before the leaders travelled to New York. He said the proposal came from Christodoulides on 24 September and was conveyed to him through the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, María Ángela Holguín.

According to Erhürman, he told Holguín he would attend if there was a prospect of agreement on at least some of the seven confidence-building measures put forward by Guterres, and if the Secretary-General was available. He said he received no further response on that proposal.

The measures include crossing points, mine clearance, joint responses to natural disasters and irregular migration, a civil society consultation mechanism, sport, and citizenship rights for children born to mixed marriages.

Erhürman said there had been no meaningful progress on those measures, on the method for conducting future negotiations, or on substantive issues. He argued that the 19 new proposals subsequently presented by Christodoulides would shift attention away from the work already set out by Guterres.

He also described a later call from Holguín about a possible opening on rotating presidency. Erhürman said he would have been willing to discuss the issue as a matter of political equality, but saw no prospect of a useful meeting if it were linked to security and guarantees.

His position, he insisted, was not a refusal to engage. “I do not run away from the negotiating table,” he said, adding that the two leaders could meet weekly or every 10 days in Nicosia if that would help produce results.

Erhürman said Holguín was expected to return to Cyprus in October. With Guterres’s term due to end in December, he argued that the limited time available should be spent advancing the existing confidence-building measures rather than repeatedly changing the focus of discussions.

“We can start tomorrow and hold marathon meetings,” he said. “But the point is to achieve a result.”