The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Monday lambasted the Greek Cypriot administration’s newly elected leader Nikos Christodoulides for suggesting the “more active participation” of the European Union in order to resume talks on the Cyprus issue.
“Christodoulides’ suggestion is the recurring manifestation of the Greek Cypriot policy we have been facing for decades,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry read, stressing that the TRNC would not accept the EU's involvement in the Cyprus issue.
“The EU's pro-Greek attitude in the crisis has blocked an acceptable agreement and served to perpetuate the status quo,” the ministry noted.
Arguing that the EU is using financial aid as an instrument against the Turkish Cypriots, the ministry said it was “now time for us to reconsider our ties with the EU and endeavor to pull them to a respectable level.”
Slamming Christodoulides’ recent remarks as “out of touch” and “aimed at presenting a front," the ministry concluded: “We hope that the Greek Cypriot administration, Greece and all parties who back their maximalist policies will recognize that the federation model is an outdated solution devoid of today’s notions and new ideas and that embracing an agreement proposing a two-state cooperation would be a virtue.”
The TRNC covers the northern third of the Mediterranean island while the Greek Cypriot administration covers the southern rest. It entirely broke away from the south and declared independence in 1983 after a coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention, dubbed Cyprus Peace Operation, as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
Turkish Cyprus has been resolute in demanding a two-state solution that would ensure international recognition and equal sovereignty and status, something the Greek Cypriots reject out of hand.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years. U.N.-backed reunification talks have been in limbo since the last round collapsed at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in July 2017.
A peace deal on the island of Cyprus, home to a key U.K. air base and a listening post, would be seen as removing a political thorn vexing the international community for decades at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine brought instability to the globe.
Moreover, a deal could expedite the development of sizable natural gas deposits off Cyprus’ southern shores amid Europe’s energy crunch and help smooth the rocky relationship between NATO allies Greece and Türkiye.
But Christodoulides’ express support for a bi-zonal bi-communal federation in line with a U.N. framework, as well as a call for a greater EU role that “would be reflected in Türkiye-EU relations to pressurize the TRNC” has drawn ire from the north.
A top U.N. official held separate meetings with both Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar last week in a bid to move hamstrung peace negotiations forward and reiterate the world body’s commitment for a resolution, which has some 800 peacekeepers patrolling the buffer zone between the north and south.
Tatar, however, has maintained his country would “never compromise on its sovereignty” and emphasized: “There doesn’t exist natural mechanism that would unite us with the Greek Cypriots and allow us to live as one nation."
Despite having met face-to-face and conveyed mutual expectations following Christodoulides’ election victory in late February, neither leader are likely to reach an agreement and formal talks appear improbable to resume before Türkiye’s May 14 election.
Türkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots.
