UN envoy for Cyprus explores prospect of new reunification talks

An envoy for UN Secretary General António Guterres started contacts on divided Cyprus on Tuesday (30 January), seeking to break years of stalemate in peace talks.

UN envoy Maria Angela Holguín Cuéllar, a former Colombian foreign minister, was on her first visit after being appointed envoy on 5 January with a mandate to explore the resumption of negotiations.

“I come from a country that lived through 50 years of conflict … I think I can collaborate and do all my best for a good result for Cyprus,” she told reporters, referring to civil war in Colombia which struck peace in 2016 with the main rebels.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup and remains a source of friction between fellow NATO military alliance members Greece and Turkey.

United Nations peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone separating the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) from the internationally recognised south.

Countless mediation attempts have failed. The last round of UN-sponsored negotiations collapsed in disarray in 2017 over the role of Turkey in a post-settlement Cyprus.

Officially the entire territory of Cyprus is EU territory, since the Republic of Cyprus joined the union in 2004.

Holguín, who was Colombian foreign minister from 2010 to 2018, met with Nikos Christodoulides, the President of Cyprus, and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

“We reiterated our focus to approach this new phase … with sincere political will and positive input to create preconditions for the resumption of talks,” a spokesperson for Christodoulides said.

His administration last week unveiled a series of confidence building measures directed at Turkish Cypriots.

Tatar, who has headed the so-called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC) since 2020, wants a two-state settlement. TRNC is recognised only by Ankara.

That is rejected by Greek Cypriots, who cite previously-agreed accords and UN resolutions that the island reunite under a federal umbrella with a strong central government.

“All the efforts during years of talks to find a solution in a federation basis have yielded no result since the other side does not want to share prosperity and governance with the Turkish side equitably,” Tatar said after meeting Holguin.

“For there to be a fair, sustainable and lasting agreement in Cyprus, the sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots must absolutely be recognised … It is not possible for us to take a step back from this.”

At present the Republic of Cyprus government is comprised solely of Greek Cypriots, a legacy of a constitutional breakdown in 1963 when a power-sharing administration with Turkish Cypriots crumbled amid violence.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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