Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Monday ruled out the prospect of a tripartite meeting involving himself, President Nikos Christodoulides and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin while the latter is on the island, owing to the arrests made by the Republic of Cyprus of people accused of selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

Speaking after a meeting with Holguin, he described the arrests as “terrorism”, declaring that “these terrorist activities must stop now”.

“I said there was no need for a tripartite meeting. I said that a meeting with Christodoulides could not be held in such an environment, that there was discomfort on the issue of property, and that it would not be right to create such an environment without resolving these issues,” he said.

“If they think they can put even more pressure on us with these steps, I told Holguin that this would be a huge miscalculation.”

“The Greek Cypriot leadership’s terrorising steps are destroying the grounds for talks. Unilateral steps taken on property issues are preventing us from making healthy progress in other areas. For this reason, I requested that [Holguin] forward the minutes of the talks to [Christodoulides],” he said.

He added that he had also requested that Holguin “convey” the matter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“I told her that their insincerity, especially regarding the property issue, deeply upset us, that this is not something which can be tolerated, and that unless it is corrected, it will not be possible to discuss the other issues healthily,” he said.

He also briefly touched on the matter of crossing points, saying that the Greek Cypriot side “constantly offers suggestions which are contrary to the spirit of the crossing points”.

“I would definitely not say yes to a pedestrian crossing point. This is not our priority. We are open to steps which will ease the current problems at the crossing points where there is a lot of vehicular traffic,” he said.

Meanwhile, Holguin made statements of her own after the meeting, saying she had “listened very carefully” to Tatar about his concerns regarding the matter of property.

She added that they had “taken a look” at the issue of the confidence-building measures which had been agreed at the enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem which took place in Geneva in March.

“Because we have to have results for the next meeting in July in New York, so we are going to work, I am going to do all my best and give us a bridge to have results,” she said.

“This I think is a good start, we have to build trust, and this is the way to do it, and listening to the concerns of both leaders.”

Tatar’s concerns about the matter of property come as the number of cases regarding the development of Greek Cypriot property in the north is on the rise, with two Hungarian nationals having become the first to be sentenced to prison over the matter last week.

They had admitted to promoting and advertising the sale of houses near Kyrenia on the internet.

He had also poured cold water on the idea of opening a new crossing point in central Nicosia following a meeting with Christodoulides at the beginning of the month.

“There is no serious congestion on Ledra Street. Every crossing point has security, personnel, and infrastructure costs. At the moment, opening a new pedestrian crossing point near Ledra Street is not a need. The most important need is to ease vehicular crossings,” he told Tak, the north’s news agency, at the time.

He added, “I clearly told the Greek Cypriot leader…  ‘do not take this matter lightly, it does not matter what our political situation is; these people are continuing to live, and the crossings are continuing”.

On this matter, he accused the Greek Cypriots of “following a policy to reduce the number of crossings”.

“The fewer people who cross to this side, the more it suits them, because every person who crosses to this side addresses this side. They are stamped; papers are drawn up. This does not suit the Greek Cypriot administration,” he said.