Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman met Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday, the first time since the former won the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' (TRNC) October presidential elections.
The two men came together in the no-man’s land dividing the island, in the residence of the U.N. special envoy, a venue that has hosted former Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders in the past.
After the meeting that lasted for more than one hour, Erhürman told reporters that it was a positive meeting and they presented a 10-point proposal “to build an atmosphere for solution.”
The island has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. The Greek Cypriots have sought a federal solution.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983. The country is fully recognized only by Türkiye, which does not recognize the Greek Cypriot administration in the south.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, but negotiations have been stalled since 2017. Erhürman has advocated the resumption of the formal negotiations with the Greek Cypriot side in his election campaign.
Former TRNC President Ersin Tatar repeatedly met with Greek Cypriot leaders in informal talks brokered by the U.N., but those negotiations did not yield concrete results for the final status of Cyprus.
Erhürman told reporters that their proposal, which may pave the way for a solution process, was about issues that would “help both sides in the daily lives of people of the island,” adding that they were “issues that can be easily resolved.” Those include new border transit points and direct communications between security forces on the border. Erhürman said his side also voiced the TRNC’s concerns about several issues, including the burning of the Turkish Cypriot flag on Nov. 15 by Greek Cypriot demonstrators. The flag burning was on the day of the 42nd anniversary of the foundation of the TRNC.
The Turkish Cypriot leader said that, for the first time, they had formally conveyed to the other side not only their proposals but also a four-point methodology for a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus issue.
Noting that they did not want to leave “empty-handed” if a 5+1 meeting is held, he said both he and TRNC Presidential Undersecretary Mehmet Dana had reminded their counterpart on the Greek Cypriot side that the two leaders had authorized the representatives to meet frequently. He added that, during this process, the leaders would remain in constant telephone contact. A “5+1” meeting refers to talks between sides that also include the guarantor states Greece, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, as well as the U.N.
In a written statement released by the U.N. spokesperson’s office after the meeting between the two leaders, the U.N. said Erhürman and Christodoulides met for the first time in the buffer zone under the coordination of Khassim Diagne, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative and head of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). The U.N. noted that Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, the secretary-general’s personal envoy, joined the meeting online.
The meeting was described as having taken place in a cordial atmosphere, and it was announced that Erhürman and Christodoulides agreed to hold a joint meeting with Holguin Cuellar and to convene a broader session.
According to reports in the Greek Cypriot press, Christodoulides told reporters afterward that the meeting was not a negotiation and that each side simply raised issues it considered important.
Christodoulides said the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere and argued that they have entered a process aimed at resuming Cyprus negotiations from where they left off.
