HAMILTON, Canada

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo will travel to Cyprus this weekend, UN spokesman announced Friday.

"On the 10th of February, she will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides and Mr. Ersin Tatar respectively," Farhan Haq said during a news conference.

The discussions will address steps that could be taken regarding the Cyprus issue, said Haq, adding that the upcoming broader informal meeting that is expected to be held soon will also be addressed.

"Following her visit to Cyprus, she will hold meetings in Athens, Greece on the 12th of February and Ankara, Türkiye on the 13th of February for discussions on the Cyprus issue as well as other key regional and global developments," he said.

Decades-long dispute

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve 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. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It 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 UK.

The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.