Cyprus Talks Begin in Geneva After Four-Year Pause
Leaders from the Republic of Cyprus and the self-declared state of Northern Cyprus met at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva on April 27 to discuss the future of the island. (izahorsky)
Rival heads of state from Cyprus began informal talks in Geneva regarding the island’s future on April 27. This marked the first day out of a three-day event, the first meeting between the two countries in four years.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is hosting separate meetings with Nicos Anastasiades, the president of the largely-Greek Republic of Cyprus, and Ersin Tatar, the president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, followed by a plenary session with both delegations scheduled for the final day, April 29. The foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom are also present as “guarantors” under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee in which those countries agreed not to interfere in Cypriot politics. Greece and Turkey have historically supported the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus respectively, while the United Kingdom is loyal to its two territories on the island, Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
Such divisions in Cyprus peaked in 1974 when the country split into two ethnically divided states after a faction of Turkish Cypriots broke away from Cyprus’s government. Since then, residents of the two sides have occasionally clashed at protests near the border, resulting in the institution of a UN-mandated neutral zone dividing the two sides of the island. The conflict in Cyprus has also become a sort of proxy for tensions between Greece and Turkey.
Guterres remarked that the purpose of their recent meeting was to see if more official negotiations on reunification or a two-state solution were even possible. A UN spokesperson told reporters, “The parties are welcome to be creative and the secretary-general will be encouraging them to use diplomatic language in a sincere and frank manner. The reason he is inviting them is to see if there is a common vision for the future.” The Secretary-General himself said that his expectations going into the talks were “realistic.”
The first meeting of the summit was a private conversation between Guterres and Tatar, followed by a similar meeting between the UN leader and Anastasiades. The Turkish Cypriot leader advocated for a two-state solution in which Northern Cyprus would become a fully recognized state alongside the Republic of Cyprus. In an interview before the talks began, Tatar asserted, “My new vision is two sovereign states living side-by-side in a good, neighborly relationship, to cooperate in any way, to promote welfare for all Cypriots. When I say two states, I obviously mean the recognition of the Turkish Cypriots. We are as sovereign as the Greek Cypriots." Turkey is currently the only country that recognizes Northern Cyprus, putting it at odds with its neighbor and NATO ally, Greece.
On the Greek Cypriot side, Anastasiades seemed to dismiss the two-state plan and call for a reunification of the island. “Of course I have told the Secretary-General that our attempt was to create a positive climate, without provocations, without any references to whatever unacceptable (things) we heard,” he said on April 28. The Republic of Cyprus, unlike Northern Cyprus, is internationally recognized as an independent country and became a member of the EU in 2004. Its position has always been that the majority-Turkish north is a rebel state that should eventually return to the government it broke away from.
If the talks in Geneva go well, they could open the door to more successful attempts at other formal negotiations, such as the 2017 Crans-Montana talks on reunification, which ultimately collapsed over a Greek push for a withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island and Turkish demands for a rotating presidency between ethnically Greek and Turkish politicians. On the other hand, if both sides remain steadfast in their positions, the stage will be set for further conflict over issues like the border between the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, as well as overlapping claims to oil-rich waters in the eastern Mediterranean.