UN envoy to visit Cyprus for talks with Turkish, Greek Cypriot leaders

HAMILTON, Canada

The UN announced Friday that Maria Angela Holguin, the personal envoy of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Cyprus, will travel to the island next week for meetings.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that Holguin will meet Nikos Christodoulides, the Greek Cypriot administration leader, on Sept. 12, and Ersin Tatar, president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), on Sept. 15.

“She is also expected to engage with the representatives of the two leaders, among other Cypriot stakeholders,” he said.

Decades-long dispute

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.

• Cyprus
• Maria Angela Holguin
• Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Cyprus