If Mia Milia opens, does that really swing open the road to a solution?

Opinion Cyprus problemNikos ChristodoulidespoliticsTufan Erhurman If Mia Milia opens, does that really swing open the road to a solution? Tetarths Mia Mhlia 1536x827 Relevant News If Mia Milia opens, does that really swing open the road to a solution? 5 August 2026 Things to do on Wednesday, August 5 5 August 2026 Extreme heat could cost Cyprus economy €3.8 billion by 2050, study finds 5 August 2026 Aristos Michaelides 5 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Are there still Greek Cypriots out there who genuinely believe it’s our side holding up the Cyprus talks? Who think that if Christodoulides opens the Mia Milia crossing, the road to a solution swings open? There are, certainly. But I thought that was the preserve of a few fringe extremists, reeling off national-nihilist nonsense and arguments lifted straight from the Turkish playbook, arguments so shameless even the Turks are impressed. But hearing it from someone as seasoned as Averof Neophytou is baffling on an entirely different scale. When he tells Nikos Christodoulides, “We’ll become even better friends if you actually get past the obstacle of one checkpoint so the road to a solution can open”, what else is he supposed to mean by that? We all know what Turkey is actually demanding: the opening of Mia Milia. Full stop. With no agreed principle of reciprocity anywhere in sight. And when Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman rejects even proposals from UN Secretary-General Guterres for a simultaneous opening of the Athienou–Aglandjia crossing, it tells you exactly what “getting past the obstacle of one checkpoint” would really mean for the President: accepting whatever they’re asking for. Not the road to a solution. Not even the road to meaningful negotiations. Just the road to the five-party conference. I find that genuinely depressing. Because Averof isn’t alone, other politicians share the same view, even if they won’t say so publicly. They want Christodoulides to open Mia Milia unilaterally, just to show he’s serious about a solution, apparently. Half a century of experience, half a century of blackmail, and they still haven’t worked out how Turkish policy against Cyprus actually operates, let alone how to counter it. Even Nicos Anastasiades, once the leading light of “Yes-istan” (the pro-reunification “Yes” camp from the 2004 referendum), had worked out that “the policy of appeasement is not going to produce the desired results with Turkey. It’s been tried, and it has failed” (20/7/2020). That policy, he said, “only feeds Turkey’s megalomania, its illegal actions, its blackmail tactics” even more. And today there are still politicians (and journalists, naturally) who think the problem is that Christodoulides isn’t following the appeasement playbook. Feed the beast to tame it. That’s genuinely where we still are! Meanwhile it’s blindingly obvious that Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership are after confidence-building measures that serve one purpose: getting their “realities” accepted. Meaning the fait accompli of the invasion. The fait accompli of the secessionist entity, which wants to be recognised as a good neighbour to the Greek Cypriots’ “statelet”, not even to the Republic of Cyprus. Let me remind you of another confidence-building measure that’s still hanging open, just in case anyone still doesn’t get what’s really going on. Four or five years ago, the European Commission drew up a plan to install solar parks in the buffer zone, generating electricity to be shared across both sides of the divide, powering Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike. A bicommunal solar park, funded by the EU. The studies were done. The plan envisages 36MW of generating capacity, complete with storage, something Cyprus doesn’t even have yet. So where did it get stuck? One connection, or two? The study found there should be one: a single connection to the EAC grid, with the EAC then passing on the Turkish Cypriots’ share to the occupied north. But the Turkish side is insisting on separate connections, with the occupation regime’s electricity authority drawing power straight from the solar park instead of going through the EAC. How on earth is that supposed to send a message of reunification and trust, which was the whole point of the exercise, if even the solar hook-up ends up serving total separation? So to everyone arguing that the road to a solution opens the moment Christodoulides opens Mia Milia (whose only real purpose is to grease the wheels of trade for the occupied north) and drops the demand for Athienou–Aglandjia, think hard about how much water you’re pouring onto the mill of Turkish intransigence. 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