Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar met newly elected Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday, the first meeting between the two since the Greek Cypriot elections earlier this month.
They met on neutral ground in a United Nations-controlled buffer zone splitting the two sides in Lefkoşa (Nicosia), at the home of Canadian diplomat Colin Stewart who heads the peacekeeping mission on the Eastern Mediterranean island.
The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) said the meeting was "open and constructive."
Tatar told reporters after the meeting that it was a "goodwill" meeting, adding that, "Cyprus has certain facts and sides should act in line with mutual respect," he said.
The island has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. 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. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom. The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N. Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute. Today, Turkish Cyprus supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.
Tatar stated that they discussed a number of important issues and he conveyed the TRNC's new policies and expectations for equal sovereignty and equal international status to Christodoulides. Tatar said the Greek Cypriot leader extended his condolences to Turkish Cypriots who died in the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Türkiye. "We also discussed cooperation on issues like earthquake response and health," Tatar said. He emphasized that the talks were informal, adding that reconciliation between the two sides can only be based on "facts" and formal talks can only be initiated once Greek Cypriots accept equal sovereignty of the TRNC. He said his country was conducting a new policy on the issue with the support of Türkiye.
No new meeting was set. Christodoulides said he had suggested a social meeting with Tatar and their spouses.
"The present state of affairs cannot be the solution to the Cyprus problem, not for Greek Cypriots, or Turkish Cypriots," Christodoulides said after the meeting. Christodoulides, a former foreign minister in the outgoing center-right administration, won a closely fought election on Feb. 12 and will be sworn in on Feb. 28. Centrist and right-wing parties supporting him have typically followed a hard line in reunification talks. Two of his backers reject the United Nations basis for the talks, which is uniting Cyprus under a loose federal umbrella, though Christodoulides has repeatedly stated he backs the U.N. framework.
"I didn't hear anything I didn't expect from Mr. Tatar," Christodoulides said. "I expressed my readiness – and acknowledging the differences in approach and disagreements on basic issues – to do whatever I can to break the deadlock," he said.