Samaras, Erdogan meet in Wales as new UN envoy visits Cyprus
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, in Wales for a two-day NATO summit, was expected to meet with Turkey’s new President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sildelines of the event Friday.
The unofficial meeting was scheduled in the wake of Erdogan’s controversial call for a two-state solution on Cyprus earlier this week. Talks between the two leaders are expected to focus on peace talks for the divided island as well as bilateral relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, the UN’s new special adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, arrived on the Mediterranean island Thursday for what was billed as a “familiarisation” visit.
Eide, a former foreign minister of Norway, was on Friday expected to hold separate meetings with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu. Reports said there was no plan for a joint meeting before September 21 when Anastasiades travels to New York for the UN General Assembly.
Cyprus has been split since a 1974 Turkish military invasion, dividing the north from the south after a brief Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.
