The Greek government has confirmed that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Turkish counterpart had a lengthy telephone discussion over the impending talks in Geneva over Cyprus and the possibility of both leaders attending the negotiation talks for a just and viable solution based on UN resolutions.
“In this context, they agreed to maintain regular contact ahead of the multilateral meeting in Geneva,” said an announcement from the Greek PM’s office.
Tsipras and Erdogan left open the possibility that they would travel to Geneva if a solution appeared to be emerging.
“The issue now is, as soon as we have the first indications on the state of play of the negotiations in Geneva, we will have a better picture on whether we will be represented at a prime ministerial level, or if the foreign ministers will take over.
“The positive thing is, and I reiterated this in my phone call to the Turkish president, that what is important is to see how far we can go. If it appears that a solution is likely, I am willing to attend in Geneva. If not, then the foreign ministers should take over to push talks as far as they can go,” said the Greek PM.
The two leaders also agreed to closely follow developments and go to Geneva in person if it looked as though an agreement was likely, otherwise both countries will be represented at the level of foreign ministers.
According to the sources, this indicated that the Turkish president’s attendance in Geneva cannot be ruled out and also that the issue had acquired a great deal of momentum in the past few days, meaning that no development could be ruled out.
