Pursuant to the proposal of the Turkish Cypriot side on March 19, in accordance with the instructions of President Ersin Tatar, preparatory work commenced for the resumption of crossings from all checkpoints has now reached the final stage.

 

As it will be recalled, the Turkish Cypriot side had instructed the Bilateral Health Committee to prepare a road map based on scientific data to the extent permitted by pandemic conditions and a mutual agreement had been reached that crossings should include not only the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots but also the third country citizens, which was the situation prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

While the preparatory work has been continuing, a two-week full lockdown decision was taken due to the excessive peak in the number of new cases in South Cyprus, and this situation continued until May 10. This negative development delayed the results of the efforts to initiate the crossings in accordance with Covid-19 conditions. As our people are following closely and are fully aware, the daily number of new cases on the Greek Cypriot side has only just fallen below 200.


Due to the improvement of Covid-19 conditions, we have now reached a point when the proposed measures and adjustments to bring about an alignment by the two sides are coming to an end. The Bilateral Health Technical Committee will be meeting tomorrow (Friday) to consider the proposals prepared by our Ministry of Health on the basis of the criteria determined by the World Health Organisation, which is applied to almost all the countries, together with the proposals prepared by the Greek Cypriot side.  In this meeting, we expect a decision to be made that conforms to the criteria of the World Health Organisation.


The outcome will be discussed at the meeting between the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus and the UN Special Representative and Head of UNFICYP,  Elizabeth Spehar, on Monday, May 24, and submitted for the approval of the political will of both sides.


Our wish is to avoid politicising this very sensitive health issue.