Turkey’s Erdogan, Cyprus president see different paths for divided island

Turkish leader says he sees no point in UN-led talks as Christodoulides declares reunification is the only way forward.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in northern Cyprus to mark 50 years since the invasion by Turkish forces, has said he sees no point in continuing United Nations-led negotiations on the Mediterranean island’s future.

“We believe that a federal solution is not possible in Cyprus. It is of no benefit to anyone to say let’s continue negotiations where we left off in Switzerland years ago,” Erdogan said in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Saturday.

Northern Cyprus is a breakaway state recognised only by Turkey, and its Turkish Cypriot leadership wants international recognition.

Erdogan attended a military parade in north Nicosia to mark the day in 1974 when Turkey launched its offensive. Cyprus has since been split by ethnicity, with Greek and Turkish Cypriots living on either side of a UN-patrolled border.

Peace talks have been stalled and the last round of negotiations, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, collapsed in 2017.

“Turkey is ready to negotiate, discuss, achieve lasting peace, solution in Cyprus,” Erdogan said, adding that both sides “should sit at the table as equals.”

Speaking at a separate event in Nicosia on Saturday, Cyprus’s President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters that reunification is the only path forward.

“Whatever Mr Erdogan and his representatives in the occupied areas do or say, Turkey, 50 years later, continues to be responsible for the violation of human rights of the entire Cypriot people and for the violation of international law,” Christodoulides said after a memorial service in the southern part of Nicosia in Europe’s last divided capital.

Christodoulides, whose role in reunification negotiations was as a leader of the Greek Cypriot community, said the day was a sombre one of reflection and remembrance of the dead.

“If we really want to honour all those people who were sacrificed for us to be here today – as the Republic of Cyprus – we have to do all we can for a [peace] dialogue to restart,” Christodoulides said on Friday evening.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was also due to attend events in the southern part of Nicosia.

In May, Erdogan had told Mitsotakis that there were “no unsolvable problems”, including Cyprus, between their countries as the two leaders met in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.

Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, but a shared administration between Greek and Turkish Cypriots quickly fell apart in violence that saw Turkish Cypriots withdraw into enclaves and the dispatch of a UN peacekeeping force.

In 1974, Turkey captured more than a third of the island and expelled more than 160,000 Greek Cypriots to the south.

Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognised south of the island in 2004 overwhelmingly rejected a UN-backed reunification plan in a referendum.