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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Friday with the personal envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Cyprus, ahead of the U.N. chief's planned visit to the island.
Fidan and Guterres' envoy Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar exchanged views in Ankara on recent developments regarding the Cyprus issue, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources.
Fidan reiterated that Türkiye, as a guarantor power and the Turkish Cypriots' motherland, believes "the most realistic solution to the Cyprus issue lies in the coexistence of the two states on the island," the ministry sources said.
He also said approaches that fail to recognize the Turkish Cypriot people's inherent rights to sovereign equality and equal international status, based on the realities on the island, "will not contribute to a solution," according to the sources.
Guterres appointed Cuellar, a former Colombian foreign minister, as his personal envoy on Cyprus on Jan. 5, 2024. She was tasked with determining, through consultations with the two sides on the island and the three guarantor powers, whether sufficient common ground existed to launch a new formal negotiation process on the Cyprus issue.
Cuellar's initial mandate ended in July 2024.
Based on her findings, the U.N. formally concluded in October 2024 that no common ground existed between the parties for a settlement.
In 2025, Guterres launched a new cooperation process aimed at building trust between the two sides by fostering a culture of cooperation despite the absence of common ground for formal negotiations. Following an expanded informal meeting on Cyprus in Geneva in March 2025, attended by the two sides, the three guarantor powers and Guterres, Cuellar was reappointed personal envoy to oversee the cooperation process and prepare for a second expanded informal meeting that July.
No meaningful progress was achieved during the process, largely due to the Greek Cypriot side's negative stance on key issues, including the opening of new crossing points, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources.
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to reach a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983 as a result.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot administration (GCA) entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a U.N. plan to end the dispute.
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