As crisis cripples region, long-divided Cyprus' leaders meet in New York
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides are meeting with the UN chief Tuesday, but recent history inspires doubt about their ability to resume the negotiations.
NEW YORK/NICOSIA/LEFKOSA — While Cyprus marked 50 years as a divided island, limited options remain between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots to mitigate the situation. The UN, however, under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, invited Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides for a trilateral dinner in New York on Oct. 15, following UN envoy on Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar’s appointment.
Located smack dab in the middle of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, Cyprus has seen an influx of military deployments, refugee inflows and even Hezbollah threats hurled its way over the past year as the island rises in geographical significance.
Split for 50 years as of this July, the community is mostly composed of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, divided largely by language, religion, ethnicity and a stark difference in standard of living. The island was severed in 1974 when Turkey staged a military intervention following a Greek-led coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. To date, Ankara, Athens and London remain guarantor powers and negotiations have been deadlocked since 2017.
According to the TRNC's official website, Tatar and Christodoulides last met in July 2023, paying a joint visit to the anthropological laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons. Previously, they met under the auspices of the UN deputy special adviser on Cyprus, Colin Stewart, in February 2023 for an informal discussion. As major position differences remain, no major progress if any is expected from the meeting.
