Newsroom
Can Cyprus return to meaningful negotiations while trust between the two sides is still being chipped away?
U.N. envoy Maria Angela Holguin’s answer was unusually direct: “Absolutely not.”
In a recent interview with Turkey’s ANKA news agency, Holguín was asked whether the right climate for talks could be created while Turkish Cypriot representatives complain that their international contacts are being restricted and other actions are undermining trust.
“These things only make an already complicated issue more difficult,” she replied.
Her wider message was equally blunt. Negotiations do not simply restart because leaders sit at the same table, and they cannot emerge from what she described as a hostile environment.
Instead, she said, each side must understand and accept the other and its existence.
For Cypriots accustomed to years of careful diplomatic language, this was a strikingly plain assessment from the person tasked with helping revive the peace process.
In everyday terms, Holguin appears to be saying that the two sides cannot discuss building bridges while continuing to remove the planks underneath them.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman highlighted her remarks in a post on Wednesday, arguing that attention should not only be placed on new confidence-building measures but also on what he calls “actions that erode trust.”
He cited the cancellation of a Barcelona academy festival and training camp in the Turkish-occupied north, attempts to block Turkish Cypriot representatives from meeting foreign diplomats, European Parliament decisions he described as “unilateral and biased,” and arrests linked to Greek Cypriot property cases.
Those are Erhurman’s examples and his interpretation of events. Holguín did not specifically endorse each complaint or place responsibility entirely on the Greek Cypriot side in the remarks quoted.
But she did appear to support his broader warning: actions that deepen hostility can damage the atmosphere needed for negotiations before those negotiations even begin.
Erhurman said he wanted to make sure her answer did not disappear amid the wider political argument, calling it extremely important for the next stages of the process.
That is what makes the comment significant. Cyprus has spent years discussing confidence-building measures, from new crossing points to cooperation on energy and other shared issues. Holguin is now warning that adding new measures will not be enough if political and legal disputes continue pushing the communities further apart.
