EditCyprus talks deadlock deepens as Christodoulides challenges Erdoğan at the UN
President calls for a return to 2017 negotiations under UN parameters after Erdoğan again seeks recognition of the north
President Nikos Christodoulides used Cyprus’s address to the 81st UN General Assembly to press Turkey to resume settlement talks and to challenge Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the gap between his language on international law and Ankara’s policy on the island.
Speaking in New York a day after Erdoğan, Christodoulides said 52 years after the 1974 Turkish invasion more than a third of the Republic of Cyprus remains under occupation. He described that occupation as a continuing violation of the UN Charter, citing displacement, the sealed status of Varosha, missing persons, and demographic change. Consistency in applying international law, he argued, is a test of the UN’s credibility, not a slogan reserved for other conflicts.
He then turned directly to Erdoğan’s speech. “I listened very carefully to the speech of President Erdogan yesterday: references to international law, to the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, to illegal occupation, to the drama of refugees. Yet, in relation to Cyprus, Turkey is doing exactly the opposite. Hypocrisy of the highest form.” Politicians, he added, “are judged not by their words but by their deeds.” “Mr. Erdoğan, if you want to quote from the Charter, you must first apply it.”
On talks, Christodoulides restated the UN framework of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality as the only agreed basis for a comprehensive settlement. “I remain fully committed to achieving a comprehensive settlement. I am ready to resume negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in 2017, building on the substantial work already accomplished. The common ground exists.” He called on Turkish Cypriots to see a shared future as an opportunity for prosperity and on Erdoğan “to give the green light for substantive negotiations within the UN-agreed framework.” Division, he said, “will not be accepted.”
Erdoğan’s address the previous day had taken a different line. He called for recognition of the “sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people,” an end to what he termed their “inhumane isolation,” and for UN member states to recognise the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and establish political, diplomatic and economic relations with it. That demand runs against UN Security Council resolutions 541 and 550, which declared the 1983 unilateral declaration of independence invalid and called on states not to recognise the breakaway entity. Erdoğan also said disputes in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean should be settled through good-neighbourly relations and international law.
The exchange leaves the familiar deadlock intact: Nicosia insists on restarting talks from the 2017 point of departure under the existing UN parameters; Ankara continues to seek two-state recognition. Christodoulides framed the choice as one of political will rather than missing common ground.
The article by EUalive’s partner Politis can be found here.
Caption: Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides delivers his speech at the UN, 23 September 2026 [Politis]
Updated: September 24, 2026 - 16:04
