UN chief to hold informal meeting on Cyprus later this month

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene an informal meeting on Cyprus with the leaders of the divided island and guarantor powers at UN headquarters in New York.

"Following the informal meeting on Cyprus in a broader format that was held in Geneva on 17-18 March of this year, the Secretary-General will convene on 16 and 17 July, here at UN headquarters, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as representatives of the guarantor powers of Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, for another informal meeting on Cyprus," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced during a news conference Wednesday.

Dujarric noted that "the meeting will provide an opportunity to continue the dialogue and exchange views on the progress made since the meeting in March."

- 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 Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.