The head of the United Nations Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Department, Rosemary DiCarlo, was in the divided island of Cyprus for the first time on Wednesday to discuss with Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders "a way forward" concerning one of the world’s longest-running disputes.
DiCarlo met the newly-elected Greek Cypriot administration's leader Nikos Christodoulides at the south's presidential palace and spent about one hour in Lefkoşa (Nicosia), the world’s last divided capital.
The Mediterranean island is split between the Greek Cypriot administration in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), covering the northern third of the island.
The TRNC 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, almost a year before DiCarlo took up her current post dealing with the world’s major conflict zones.
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.
"We discussed the Cyprus issue at length, and we just want to reiterate the commitments of the secretary-general for a resolution," DiCarlo told reporters after her talks with Christodoulides. She declined to take questions.
A former foreign minister backed by parties that take a hard line in reunification talks, Christodoulides won a run-off election in February. DiCarlo reported "an excellent meeting" with him and said she was also going "to discuss further a way forward" with Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar. Tatar has urged the international community to acknowledge the reality of the existence of two states on the island of Cyprus.
Christodoulides has said he supports a bi-zonal bi-communal federation in line with a U.N. framework. However, he wants a more a greater EU role in the negotiations, which "would be reflected in Türkiye-EU relations to pressurize the TRNC."
Before leaving the island on Thursday, DiCarlo is scheduled to meet some of the nearly 800 U.N. peacekeepers who patrol the buffer zone, which runs across the island and through Lefkoşa where buildings abandoned for decades crumble behind passages blocked by rusting oil drums.
In his twice-yearly report to the Security Council in January, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres expressed concerns including "ongoing militarization of the cease-fire lines" and a political climate marked by "significant hardening of positions" on both sides.
A surge in harsh rhetoric from south and north of the divide "has led to increased rigidity while prospects for a mutually agreeable settlement continue to fade," he said.
It’s unlikely that formal talks could resume before Türkiye’s May 14 election. The Greek Cypriot administration spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the Greek Cypriot side is ready for an immediate restart of negotiations, "and we expect Mr. Tatar to sit at the negotiating table with a sincere willingness to achieve" a federation-based agreement.
Based on previous remarks, Tatar and the Turkish Cypriot side are unlikely to agree, as the Greek side's remarks fall short of Turkish Cyprus expectations that any agreement in Cyprus only being based on sovereign equality and the cooperation of two states living side by side.
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, the Turkish side 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.
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