Cyprus Leaders Accept UN Plan for Talks Over Divided Island
(Bloomberg) — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced plans to convene formal talks to break years of diplomatic paralysis over the divided island of Cyprus.
“I decided to convey another 5+1 meeting following adequate preparations on confidence building methodology and substance,” Guterres told reporters Wednesday in the UN-controlled buffer zone that divides Cyprus. The island has been split for more than half a century between a Turkish-Cypriot north and a Greek-Cypriot south.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman, alongside the island’s three guarantor powers — Greece, Turkey and the UK — have agreed to the meeting if it’s adequately prepared.
“I want a successful 5+1 meeting in order to pave the way for a solution to be achieved,” Guterres said, without specifying when the talks would be held. The European Union would also attend the meeting.
A diplomatic breakthrough in Cyprus carries substantial economic and geopolitical weight for the broader eastern Mediterranean. Resolving the division would remove a primary friction point between NATO neighbors Greece and Turkey, clear hurdles in regional security cooperation, and accelerate plans to develop offshore natural gas fields for export to Europe as the continent seeks long-term energy diversification.
A solution in Cyprus would also help ensure stability in what is becoming a dangerously unstable region, Guterres said.
“The prospect of a settlement won’t materialize as long as the Greek Cypriot side’s intransigent stance remains unchanged and its actions, which also adversely impact regional security, do not cease,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said in a statement.
“Settlement models that have been tried and exhausted over the decades belong to the past,” he said.
“The resolution of the Cyprus problem, within the parameters set by the United Nations Security Council, and the reunification of the island remain a firm goal,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement
Cyprus — less than half the size of New Jersey — was effectively partitioned in 1963 when fighting erupted between its two main ethnic groups: Greek-speaking and Turkish-speaking Cypriots.
It was fully divided in 1974 after Turkish forces captured the northern third of the island following an Athens-backed coup that sought to unite Cyprus with Greece. The island has remained divided ever since.
The self-declared Turkish Cypriot state in the north is only recognized by Turkey. The internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus is an EU member and officially holds sovereignty over the entire island, though it exercises effective control only in the south.
Numerous UN-led initiatives to achieve reunification have failed, most notably at Crans-Montana, Switzerland in 2017 and during preliminary talks in Geneva in 2021, when officials from Turkey, Greece and the UK — guarantor powers under an agreement that ended British colonial rule in Cyprus — joined top Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot politicians in Geneva for three days of talks.
–With assistance from Taylan Bilgic.
(Adds Greek Foreign ministry comment in 9th paragraph.)
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