Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will pay a visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Friday, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources announced on Thursday.
The visit will precede critical talks between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots scheduled for Monday as the sides seek a way forward for the final determination of their status on the Mediterranean island.
Fidan will hold separate talks with Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman, Prime Minister Ünal Üstel and Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, on bilateral relations and the Cyprus issue.
Türkiye is among the guarantor states in talks to resolve the status of the island divided between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and aligns with the Turkish Cypriot side. It advocates equal rights, freedoms and prosperity for the Turkish Cypriot community and actively supports the security, development and welfare of Turkish Cypriots.
Ankara urges a realistic solution to the Cyprus question based on the coexistence of two states on the island, where the TRNC lacks broader global recognition unlike the Greek Cypriot administration. In line with Turkish Cypriot demands, it endorses an internationally accepted solution based on sovereign equality and equal international status and blames the Greek Cypriot side for the lack of a solution to the Cyprus question, pointing out that Greek Cypriots flatly reject the natural rights of Turkish Cypriots on the island and are unwilling to share political power and economic prosperity with the Turkish Cypriot side. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is at the forefront of calls for international recognition of the TRNC, something he voices in every address to the United Nations General Assembly.
The United Nations seeks to mediate between the sides and has managed to bring together Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders in a new round of talks since 2024, though negotiations have failed to achieve a tangible solution so far. In 2025, the talks took a new turn when guarantor states, including Greece and the United Kingdom, joined leaders of the two sides in Geneva for an expanded meeting and agreed upon six chapters of possible cooperation between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. A second meeting in July 2025 reviewed progress in the process, and last July, outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres paid an inaugural visit to Cyprus for a new initiative to advance the process towards a solution. Guterres’ special envoy for Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar is currently on the island for progress in the process and is holding talks with Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials.
On Wednesday, Cuellar met Erhürman and told journalists that the Turkish deputy foreign minister relayed a message to her through the Turkish ambassador in the TRNC.
Also on Wednesday, Üstel said that the Cyprus problem stems from the international community's recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration as the island's sole state and representative, declaring that efforts to reach a federal settlement ended at the 2017 Crans-Montana Conference.
Üstel made the remarks following his meeting with Cuellar at his National Unity Party (UBP) headquarters.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Üstel said he had conveyed the Turkish Cypriot people's messages clearly to Holguin. He said that despite the Turkish Cypriot side's longstanding goodwill and constructive approach, the Greek Cypriot administration had shown no willingness to accept a partnership based on political equality and power-sharing.
He said this had once again become evident during the 2017 Crans-Montana Conference. He added that he had also drawn attention to how the Greek Cypriot administration's international status, which he described as unjustly granted, allowed the continuation of the existing status quo.
Stressing that there are two separate peoples and states on the island, Üstel said Guterres' recent visit to Cyprus had once again demonstrated the absence of common ground for launching formal negotiations.
"The search for an agreement on the basis of a federation came to an end at Crans-Montana," Üstel said. "Reintroducing a model whose failure has been repeatedly demonstrated under different names or methods will not contribute to a solution to the Cyprus issue."
He argued that a sustainable and mutually acceptable settlement could only be achieved through the reaffirmation of the Turkish Cypriot people's inherent rights to sovereign equality and equal international status.
The prime minister underlined that a realistic, sustainable and lasting settlement in Cyprus could only be achieved through recognition of the sovereign equality of the island's two peoples and two states. He called on the international community, particularly the United Nations, to acknowledge the political realities on the island.
