By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
United Nations envoy María Ángela Holguín is travelling to Brussels and Ankara before Secretary-General António Guterres visits Cyprus, as the Turkish Cypriot side demands clear rules and concrete confidence-building steps before entering another formal negotiation process.
Holguín is due to meet European Commission Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto in Brussels on Wednesday and is expected to hold talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara on Friday. Guterres is then scheduled to visit the island from July 27 to 29 for separate and joint meetings with Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman and Republic of Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides.
The consultations are aimed at determining whether sustained UN contacts can produce a workable basis for a new Cyprus process. Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side maintain that sovereign equality, equal international status and security guarantees must be addressed before formal negotiations resume.
Erhürman reinforced that position in a July 20 address, saying the Turkish Cypriot side did not want "negotiations for the sake of negotiations" or a five-plus-one meeting held without a clear purpose and method.
"We say, let us first take serious steps to increase trust, then determine the rules of the game before it begins," Erhürman said, warning against returning to earlier negotiations as though previous failures had not occurred.
He said the Turkish Cypriot people were one of the island's two equal founding partners and could not be treated as a minority. Erhürman also said the process was being conducted in consultation and full coordination with Türkiye, while reaffirming support for Guterres's efforts to produce concrete results.
The address restated the position set out by Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side before the latest UN consultations. As Bosphorus News reported in June, the dispute centres on sequence and political status, including whether equality and procedural safeguards must be settled before negotiations or addressed within a renewed federal settlement process.
Christodoulides has called for negotiations to resume within the established UN framework and has argued that any enlarged meeting should lead to the reopening of formal talks. Erhürman has not rejected dialogue, but maintains that another process without an agreed methodology, timetable and safeguards would risk reproducing earlier failures.
The difference was already visible in the leaders' previous contacts. Both supported continued engagement and practical cooperation, but remained divided over the status from which the two sides would enter a new process.
EU role remains contested
Holguín's Brussels consultations add another unresolved issue, the European Union's role in a UN-led process.
The European Commission appointed Fitto as its special representative for Cyprus on July 13, saying he would contribute to settlement efforts within the UN framework and work closely with Holguín.
The Turkish Cypriot Foreign Ministry rejected the appointment, saying it had been made without Turkish Cypriot consent and questioning whether the EU could act impartially. The ministry described the Commission's confidence-building claims as inconsistent with the EU's previous record on the island.
The Republic of Cyprus government supports a stronger EU contribution, while the Turkish Cypriot side argues that the bloc cannot be treated as a neutral party because the Republic of Cyprus is an EU member and the Turkish Cypriots are not represented in the Union's institutions.
Holguín's meeting with Fitto will test whether the EU can take a more active role without widening the dispute over neutrality, representation and the status of the two sides.
Ankara consultation
The Ankara meeting is expected to focus on Türkiye's conditions for supporting any next step, including a possible enlarged meeting involving the two Cypriot sides, the guarantor powers Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.
Holguín's earlier consultations did not produce an announced return to formal negotiations. Bosphorus News reported after her previous regional tour that the UN's search for a "way forward" remained constrained by conflicting positions over the basis and sequence of a new process. The Greek Cypriot side and Greece support a return to negotiations within the established federal settlement framework, while Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side insist that sovereign equality and equal international status must be secured before formal talks begin.
Guterres's visit will follow the Brussels and Ankara consultations. He is expected to hold an informal dinner with both leaders, separate meetings with Christodoulides and Erhürman, and a tripartite session before leaving the island.
Any next step will depend on whether the Brussels and Ankara consultations narrow the differences over political status, confidence-building measures, EU involvement and the rules governing a new process.
Sources: TRNC Presidency, European Commission, TRNC Foreign Ministry, United Nations, Bosphorus News review and reporting.