The leaders of both the Turkish and Greek sides of the divided island of Cyprus said on Monday that they agreed to meet at a U.N-led meeting in March after years of tensions and discord.
But it remains moot whether the meeting will successfully bridge a widening chasm that separates Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar and the island’s Greek Cypriot administration leader, Nikos Christodoulides, on what a future peace deal should look like.
Both Tatar and Christodoulides held separate talks with U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo to prepare the ground for the mid-March meeting that will also bring together officials from Cyprus’ guarantors: Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.
DiCarlo said that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remains committed to helping both sides move forward with formal negotiations, while Christodoulides believes that continued ethnic division can't be the island's future, despite it being the reality over the past 60 years amid failed U.N. talks and Greek Cypriot maximalism.
“As we see in our neighborhood, there are no frozen conflicts,” Christodoulides said.
TRNC President Tatar said that the meeting next month would take place on March 17-18, but Greek Cypriot administration spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis contradicted Tatar and claimed that the U.N. would confirm the exact dates in "due course."
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong struggle between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Five decades of Cyprus talks have led nowhere.
In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.'s Annan plan to end the decadeslong dispute, which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.
The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of negotiations over the years.
While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration supported a federation in Cyprus, Türkiye and the TRNC insisted on a two-state solution that reflected the realities of the island.
