NICOSIA – European Union leaders in an April 17-18 meeting are expected to push for restarting reunification talks on Cyprus, an idea already rejected by Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.

Instead, he wants the United Nations and world to recognize the occupied northern third of the island unlawfully seized by Turkey in two 1974 invasions – the 50th anniversary this summer – although only Turkey accepts the self-declared republic.

Since ousting moderate Mustafa Akinci in October, 2020 elections – who wanted the island brought together again – Tatar has demanded the rogue republic be considered a legitimate government.

The UN has ignored that and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was at the last round of talks at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana in July, 2017 that collapsed when Akinci and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a 35,000-strong army wouldn’t leave and wanted the right of further military intervention.

A draft for the EU meeting will stress making progress in Cyprus settlement talks, although no one has come close in decades to doing that and Tatar said that’s a non-starter he won’t even discuss, and doesn’t want the EU involved.

The EU leaders will say that the bloc of 27 member states – including the Greek-Cypriot government – “attaches considerable importance to resumption of and progress in the Cyprus settlement talks, which can also enhance EU-Turkey cooperation,” according the draft under discussion, said EURACTIV.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement-neighbourhood/news/eu-leaders-to-insist-on-cyprus-talks-progress-amid-calls-for-two-state-solution/

They will state that they “remain fully committed to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, within the UN framework, in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and in line with the principles on which the EU is founded and the acquis,” the report said.

That kind of tepid language has been used for years without producing any real progress as the EU relies on so-called “soft power” in gently pushing resolutions of thorny questions that rarely get answers.

The EU and UN – Guterres was at the Swiss debacle and became the latest head of the world organization to fail to broker a deal – want a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and not the two separate states that Tatar envisages.

He appointed Colombian diplomat Maria Angela Holguin Cuéllar as the latest UN envoy, hoping her experience in settling a long civil war in her home country would work but she’s been unable to get either side to budget or even talk.

Tatar told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that trying to reunite the island after half a century is a “waste of time,” and that two separate states with permanent partition – as is the case now – is the “only way forward.”

That would come with the UN and other countries accepting the isolated side that’s dependent on Turkey for aid and rejected former Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades’ offer  of 30 percent of any revenues derived from energy hunts.

He warned that “one tiny mistake” could turn Cyprus into “a new Gaza,” referring to Israel’s invasion of the Palestinian lands in a search for Hamas terrorists who killed more than 1200 Israelis in October, 2023 raids.

In their draft conclusions, EU leaders are also expected to stress that the bloc is ready to play “an active role in supporting all stages of the UN-led process, with all appropriate means at its disposal,” the report said, the language vague.