Guterres to hold informal meeting with Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders in mid-October

MADRID 4 Oct. () –

The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, will hold an informal meeting with the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, and with the president of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Ersin Tatar, scheduled for next October 15 and whose date It has been confirmed a few days after the Greek Cypriot leader stated before the United Nations General Assembly that he was willing to resume talks on the reunification of the island.

“The date is October 15. Obviously, we will share more information with you as we get it, but the informal dinner is being planned for October 15,” said the spokesman for the UN secretary general, Stéphane Dujarric, during a press conference.

Tatar, for his part, accepted Guterres’ invitation on Monday as long as there was “no formality in the context of the talks on the Cyprus problem,” according to the ‘Cyprus Mail’ newspaper.

Cyprus has been divided in two since the Turkish Army occupied the northern part – 36.2 percent of its territory – in 1974 after a coup d’état instigated by the military junta in power in Greece and due to fears that the island joined the latter country. In 1983, the Turkish Cypriots proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Ankara, which maintains some 35,000 soldiers there.

Numerous UN-led efforts over the decades to reunify the eastern Mediterranean nation on the basis of a bizonal federation have failed. The most recent effort came in 2021, when officials from Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom – guarantor powers under an agreement that ended British colonial rule in Cyprus – joined top Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot politicians in Geneva for three days. of conversations.