UN Secretary-General António Guterres was due in Cyprus on Monday to meet the island’s rival leaders in a renewed push to revive reunification talks that collapsed in 2017.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied the northern third of the island in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens and aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece.
Since then, the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, has exercised authority only over the south, where Greek Cypriots live.
In the north, inhabited by Turkish Cypriots, the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara.
“The Secretary-General’s mission is to facilitate and encourage the people and the leaders to consider negotiations,” Mr Guterres’s personal envoy, María Ángela Holguín, told reporters on Monday.
The visit follows a decisive election victory in northern Cyprus in October for reunification supporter Tufan Erhurman, who defeated the outgoing president, Ersin Tatar, backed by Ankara.
It will also be the first visit by a UN secretary-general to the island since Ban Ki-moon travelled there in 2010.
On Tuesday, Mr Guterres is expected to meet Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman separately on either side of the buffer zone that divides the island.
A joint dinner is then planned ahead of a trilateral meeting on Wednesday.
“This is a very important visit,” said Konstantinos Letymbiotis, spokesman for the government of the Republic of Cyprus, adding that it stemmed from a personal initiative by Mr Guterres and expressing hope that it could mark “a starting point.”
He said the Secretary-General’s engagement, combined with improving relations between the European Union and Turkey, could “create a window of opportunity for progress."
The last round of talks between the two sides took place in 2017 at Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
One of the main obstacles to restarting negotiations is Ankara’s insistence on a two-state solution, while Greek Cypriots continue to back a federal settlement long supported by the UN and the EU.
