Downer meets Eroglu; The Turks boycotted a UN reception because Akca had not been invited
Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (21.11.12) reports that Alexander Downer, UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, has started sounding the waters with the aim of preparing a “new negotiating process”, as the paper calls it, before the presidential elections, which will be held in February in the Republic of Cyprus. Downer held yesterday separately meetings with President Christofias and the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.
UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Lisa Buttenheim as well as Eroglu’s advisor and spokesman, Hasan Gungor and Osman Ertug respectively were among the participants in the meeting held in the occupied area of Cyprus. According to the paper, today Downer will meet separately with the representatives of the leaders and tomorrow he will see both of them together.
In statements yesterday, Downer said they have to wait and see what will happen in the presidential elections and afterwards. He noted that it was not their job to predict what will happen in the elections.
Downer’s meeting with Eroglu started at 15.00 and ended at 16.15 o’ clock.
Meanwhile, according to Kibris, President Christofias and Dervis Eroglu did not participate in the reception hosted last night by Alexander Downer at Chateau Status restaurant in the buffer zone with the aim of bringing the two leaders together. Moreover, the paper reports that Eroglu’s spokesman and special representative, Osman Ertug departed early from the reception as a reaction to the fact that the so-called ambassador of Turkey to the occupied part of Lefkosia, Halil Ibrahim Akca was not invited.
UN officials said they invited both leaders and added that they did not know why they had not attended the reception, which was held with the participation of many Ambassadors of foreign countries and the EU.
Presidential Commissioner George Iacovou, Eroglu’s former special representative, Kudret Ozersay and the chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, Gunay Cerkez were among the guests at the reception.