UN political affairs chief to visit Cyprus on Wednesday

By Betul Yuruk

UNITED NATIONS (AA) - UN political affairs chief Rosemary Di Carlo will travel to Cyprus on Wednesday, said a statement on Monday.

"She will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides and Mr. Ersin Tatar, respectively, to discuss the way forward on the Cyprus issue," according to the statement.

It said that DiCarlo will be focusing on the work of the Secretary-General’s good offices mission and meeting with representatives of civil society, including youth and women’s groups.

She will also visit the committee on missing persons, it added.

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 European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.