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Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Tufan Erhurman and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides are scheduled to meet on Nov. 20, marking their first encounter since Erhurman’s election last month, according to a Reuters report citing officials.
Erhurman, a center-left moderate, won a landslide victory in the Oct. 19 presidential election in the Turkish Cypriot-administered north, pledging to revive stalled U.N.-mediated talks aimed at reunifying the island.
The two leaders will meet at the residence of the U.N. peacekeeping force’s envoy on the island. The announcement of the meeting was issued simultaneously by both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides.
The meeting is intended for the two leaders “to become acquainted,” according to a statement from Erhurman’s office. A spokesperson for Christodoulides said he was approaching the encounter with “constructive and sincere political will.”
Cyprus has been divided for decades between Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north, despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the United Nations to reach a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic violence in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece prompted a military intervention by Türkiye, acting as a guarantor power to protect the Turkish Cypriot population. The TRNC was declared in 1983.
The island has seen intermittent peace efforts, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor states Türkiye, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
The Greek Cypriot Administration joined the European Union in 2004—the same year Greek Cypriots unilaterally rejected a U.N. reunification plan aimed at ending the decadeslong division.
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