TRNC President Holds Second Meeting This Week with UN Secretary-General’s Envoy

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar has held a second meeting this week with María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, the personal envoy of UN Secretary-General António Guterres for Cyprus.

The meeting took place at the Presidential Residence and began at 10:00 AM. Also in attendance for part of the meeting were the President’s Special Representative Günesh Onar and members of the presidential delegation.

As a reminder, their first meeting was held on Monday, May 26, shortly after Holguín Cuéllar arrived on the island over the weekend.

Following that initial meeting, President Tatar stated that progress in the negotiation process would not be possible unless the arrests of real estate agents and property owners in the TRNC come to an end.

He stressed that a trilateral meeting “will be pointless unless these issues are resolved.”

After Thursday’s meeting, the UN envoy said she had listened carefully to the concerns raised by the Turkish Cypriot leader regarding the recent arrests.

The discussions also included confidence-building measures agreed upon by both sides during the Geneva talks in March.

According to the Colombian diplomat, both communities need to reach a compromise on these issues ahead of the next round of talks, which is scheduled to take place in July in New York.

Earlier this week, Holguín Cuéllar also met with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, the chief negotiators from both sides—Menelaos Menelaou and Günesh Onar—as well as members of the Technical Committee on Youth and representatives of the diplomatic community.

The UN envoy is expected to leave the island on Saturday, May 31. After her visit to Cyprus, she will continue her diplomatic tour with visits to the three guarantor countries: Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom.