ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey sees a two-state arrangement as the most realistic path to resolving the long-standing political deadlock on the divided island of Cyprus. Speaking alongside Tufan Erhurman, the newly elected Turkish Cypriot president, Erdogan reiterated Ankara’s position that decades of failed negotiations justify a fresh approach.
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Erhurman, who has pledged to revisit a federal solution backed for years by the United Nations, made his first official foreign visit to Turkey. Erdogan, however, cautioned that past talks had repeatedly collapsed because Greek Cypriots, in his view, sought to reduce Turkish Cypriots to a “minority status in a partnership state that no longer exists.” He insisted that a peaceful formula was still possible, provided both sides approached discussions realistically.
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Erhurman asserted that Turkish Cypriots are one of the island’s two founding partners and hold sovereign rights across Cyprus, including over energy and hydrocarbon resources. He said his people would not accept any settlement that undermines this status or repeats formulas that “have been tried many times and led nowhere.”
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He added that negotiations would be pointless if the Greek Cypriot leadership remained unwilling to engage in sincere dialogue. Cyprus has been split since 1974 following a Turkish military intervention triggered by a brief Greek-backed coup. Peace talks have stalled since 2017, leaving the island divided between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Turkey.
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