An island of cooperation

Opinion Antonio GuterresCyprus problempoliticsturkey An island of cooperation Proedros Gkouteres 1536x1445 Relevant News An island of cooperation 30 July 2026 Defence disputes car lock findings in Xylofagou boys’ deaths case 30 July 2026 The effort on the Cyprus problem, and its prospects, kept alive 30 July 2026 Aristos Michaelides 30 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The truth is we’re back to square one. The hope that Guterres’s visit might prove decisive has gone home to New York empty-handed. Or rather, shelved for another day. Of course, if we fancy fooling ourselves, we can spin it more positively. We can keep picking apart the Secretary-General’s every word and celebrate the fact that he got the green light from the guarantor powers, meaning Turkey, to convene a five-party conference at some vague future date. Or that he kept the negotiating acquis alive on the table. Or that he’s bound by Security Council resolutions. But the substance of it is this: from this visit, what we got was a five-party conference with no fixed date, which might one day lead to negotiations. And the Turks got exactly what Tufan Erhurman was after: preparatory confidence-building measures (CBMs), meaning the Mia Milia crossing, and agreement on methodology before the conference even happens. What they won above all was the point Erhurman made sure to underline in his very first statement: that the fact he “met with Christodoulides in the south, and with me and my delegation in the north” means “the position of the two equal leaders, under the United Nations umbrella, was reaffirmed.” So the “two equal leaders” are both pleased, each for his own reasons, but not because of anything that suggests real agreement, let alone shared understanding. Especially given that yesterday, before Guterres had even left Cyprus, Turkey’s foreign ministry (Fidan’s ministry, the one Holguín had been in contact with to get sign-off on the Secretary-General’s statements) rushed to declare that “there is still no common ground for a solution,” and that instead “emphasis must be placed on progress in specific areas of cooperation.” Because “progress on cooperation issues can help build trust between the two communities.” And it repeated the line about a solution “only on the basis of the realities on the island, and on the basis of sovereign equality and the equal international status of Turkish Cypriots.” All this, yesterday, just as the Secretary-General was declaring: “I have the consent of both sides, as well as the guarantor powers, to move forward with a 5+1 meeting, but with the proper preparation.” And he stressed that “proper preparation” more than once: “It is essential that efforts be intensified to define and implement confidence-building measures that can improve the daily lives of all Cypriots.” That’s the substance of it. Everything else is just each side spinning it to suit itself. Let’s deal in truths, though, so we actually know what’s being done to us. The CBMs that are supposed to improve daily life for all Cypriots are exactly what the Turkish side has been demanding all along (even the toxic Tatar was asking for them), and they’re built around cooperation between two equal entities (let’s not say statelets again), turning the occupation regime, the so-called “trnc”, into a cooperative neighbour. All so that, as Erhurman would put it, the standing of two equal state agencies gets underlined, and under the United Nations umbrella, no less! But we’re delighted even with the mere prospect of a five-party conference (better than nothing, apparently!), even though the exact same announcement was made a year ago, when Holguín came to lay the groundwork for it. How quickly we forget, though, that the whole invention of five-party conferences was Turkey’s idea in the first place. Ankara pitched it to every UN Secretary-General in turn, and Greek Cypriot leaderships always rejected it. Because it was designed to make the Republic of Cyprus disappear, putting the three guarantor powers and the two communities round the table instead. Without the Republic of Cyprus. Greek Cypriot leaders kept resisting it, right up until 2015, when Espen Barth Eide started pushing it. Now, so the Greek Cypriots don’t kick up a fuss, they call it “5+1”: the same format, different name. Today, we’re the ones begging for the five-party conference, while Turkey, the side that forced it on us in the first place, is the one kicking up a fuss. And now, before Turkey will even accept it, its next demand has to be met first: progress on cooperation between the two neighbouring… entities. After all, Guterres said as much himself: the Cypriots he listened to “want a future in which this island is defined not by division, but by cooperation, opportunity and peace.” So what if they don’t have a normal state? Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Defence disputes car lock findings in Xylofagou boys’ deaths case The effort on the Cyprus problem, and its prospects, kept alive Nostalgia is not a good strategy SBA Police opens new marine unit station at Episkopi Bay Mediterranean at high risk as heatwaves boost disease spread across Europe, ECDC says Trafficking victim numbers remain worryingly high, says Commissioner Man reports shots fired at his car in Nicosia mystery case Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.