The president of Cyprus stated on Wednesday his dedication to restarting reunification discussions with Turkish Cypriots, emphasizing that any agreement must adhere to U.N. resolutions.
The United Nations has scheduled an informal meeting in Geneva on March 17-18, bringing together Greek and Turkish Cypriots, along with representatives from Turkey, Britain, and Greece, to explore potential progress in resolution efforts that have been stalled since 2017.
“Our objective is singular: to restart negotiations from where they were previously paused… based on the established (U.N.) framework. We are not considering anything beyond that,” President Nikos Christodoulides remarked to reporters in Nicosia, the ethnically divided capital of Cyprus.
He has received an invitation to participate in the March discussions as the leader of the Greek Cypriot community alongside Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who heads a self-declared Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, recognized solely by Turkey.
The island was divided following a Turkish invasion in 1974, which was triggered by a brief coup inspired by Greece, and years of intermittent violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots that occurred soon after gaining independence from Britain in 1960.
Greek Cypriots aim for a federal union comprising two ethnic areas, whereas Turkish Cypriots support a two-state solution that would entail acknowledgment of the separate northern region, a proposition that Greek Cypriots categorically reject. Both parties have recently intensified their positions.
The conflict remains a significant issue for the United Nations, which has maintained a peacekeeping presence on the island since 1964.
The latest round of high-level peace talks, which fell apart in Switzerland in 2017, sought to establish a federation as outlined in U.N. resolutions.
Christodoulides was elected in 2023 with backing from parties that are generally more stringent regarding the resolution of Cyprus’s division, yet he has pledged to overcome the impasse in peace negotiations.
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Since Tatar’s election in 2000, the stance of Turkish Cypriots and Turkey has shifted towards advocating for a two-state agreement.
