President Nicos Anastasiades has said that he will not let the opportunity for a Cyprus solution slip through his hands.
During a press conference on the failure of the Mont Pelerin talks on Wednesday, the President said that he went to Switzerland to discuss and finalise the territory criteria.
President Anastasiades mentioned that the three territory criteria he agreed to discuss with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were as follows:
– The size of the Turkish Cypriot constituent state after the territorial adjustments
– The number of refugees that would be returned to the Greek Cypriot constituent state
– The size of the coastline of each constituent state
The President said that he had proposed, as per UN recommendations, for the return of at least approximately 78,000 refugees and at most approximately 92,000.
However, President Anastasiades added that the Turkish Cypriot side continued to insist on fewer refugees,a number which varied from approximately 55,000 at least and 65,000 at most.
Necessary steps
The President has said that despite being disappointed with the results in Mont Pelerin, he wanted to assure the public that he is decided in moving forward with all the necessary steps for the dialogue to restart.
“In order to reach a solution which will be accepted by both communities, what has been agreed must be observed and the solution must meet first and foremost the principles and values of international and European law, and must allow a viable, functional and modern European state to operate,” the President said.
President Anastasiades has said that he has had excellent cooperation with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Since the return of the two leaders, Akinci has said that the Greek Cypriot side did not show the appropriate realism during the talks.
On his part, President Anastasiades has been in contact with European officials on the process of moving forward.
UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide has also returned to Cyprus, and the UN has expressed that “game is not over,” on Cyprus negotiations.
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