Cyprus President's Quest for Reunification: A Renewed Dialogue

Cyprus’s president announced his commitment to resuming reunification talks with Turkish Cypriots, emphasizing that any agreement should rely on U.N. resolutions. An informal meeting, called by the U.N., will occur in Geneva with Greek and Turkish Cypriots and stakeholders from Turkey, Britain, and Greece to address the stalemate in discussions.

Cyprus's president declared his intention to recommence reunification discussions with Turkish Cypriots, underscoring the necessity for any agreement to follow U.N. resolutions. The United Nations has summoned an informal assembly of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, joined by stakeholders Turkey, Britain, and Greece, in Geneva on March 17-18 to seek solutions to the prolonged deadlock in talks, which have been stalled since 2017.

"Our goal is one: to resume talks from where they left off ... on the basis of the agreed (U.N.) framework. We are not discussing anything else," President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters in Nicosia. He will attend the March talks as the Greek Cypriot community leader alongside Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, the head of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, which only Turkey recognizes.

The island experienced a division following a Turkish invasion in 1974, triggered by a short-lived Greek-inspired coup and years of sporadic violence after independence from Britain in 1960. The Greek Cypriots advocate for a federal union of two ethnic zones, while the Turkish Cypriots favor a two-state solution. Both factions have reinforced their respective stances. The United Nations, which deployed a peacekeeping force on the island in 1964, continues to address this issue. The last notable peace negotiation attempt in 2017 in Switzerland sought to establish a federation, a plan outlined in U.N. resolutions.

(With inputs from agencies.)