Disputed island's leaders, guarantor states set to gather for informal talks at UN headquarters with participation of Hakan Fidan
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will attend an informal meeting on Cyprus with the leaders of the divided island and guarantor powers at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
According to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, the Turkish side hopes the meeting will result in steps toward fostering a culture of cooperation between the two sides on the island, thus helping develop good neighborly relations between the two states on Cyprus.
Along with Fidan, those attending the two-day meeting will include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar, Greek Cypriot administration leader Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, and UK Minister of State for Europe, North America, and Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty.
Fidan also took part in a similar informal meeting on Cyprus held in Geneva this March.
These informal meetings do not represent a continuation of previous negotiation processes, nor the start of a new negotiation process.
At the Geneva meeting, held at Guterres' request, the sides focused on cooperation areas such as crossing points, demining, and environmental issues, with progress achieved on some but stalled on others due to the stance of the Greek Cypriot side.
To advance the process, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, the UN secretary-general's personal envoy on Cyprus, was reappointed in May and has since engaged in multiple visits and consultations with leaders and officials on the island and in Türkiye, Greece, the UK, and the EU.
- Decades-long Cyprus problem
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN 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 of the island 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 UK.
The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
