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Olgin: Leaders Need to Find Sustainable Avenues for Restarting Talks

Published February 15, 2026, 12:11
Olgin: Leaders Need to Find Sustainable Avenues for Restarting Talks

The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General in Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, states that the leaders of Cyprus must continue their meetings and explore sustainable avenues for restarting negotiations, ideally by July. She mentions that a recent meeting with President Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Erhurman resulted in the idea of direct talks without UN mediation. Holguin will return to the island when she believes she can contribute to specific progress and the leaders consider the UN's presence useful. Holguin points out that leaders need time for their ideas to mature, taking into account internal political developments such as parliamentary elections and Cyprus's Presidency of the EU Council. At the same time, she notes that the commitments to confidence-building measures announced in Geneva in March 2025 have not yet yielded results. In the latest meeting of the leaders, Holguin sought to create a channel for direct communication, where the leaders listened to each other and expressed their hopes for substantial negotiations. She believes that this meeting was the beginning of a relationship of trust between the leaders, which is essential for any negotiation. Holguin emphasizes that, given the long history of conflict in Cyprus and failed attempts at reconciliation, leaders must be careful not to create new disappointments in their societies. She mentions that 2026 is expected to see increased activity on the island, using the terms 'south' and 'north' to refer to the free and occupied areas respectively.