Candan addresses PACE General Assembly
30 January, 2026
Assembly delegation attends first part of PACE ordinary session
2 February, 2026
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), pursuant to its Resolution No. S/RES/2815 (2026), adopted on 30 January 2026, extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for one year, until 31 January 2027.
At a time when the legitimacy and credibility of the United Nations system are increasingly subject to scrutiny, the UNSC’s decision to extend the mandate of UNFICYP on the basis of unilateral consent obtained from the so-called “Government of Cyprus,” without the consent of the Turkish Cypriot side and despite our explicit objections, constitutes a serious mistake. This approach disregards the existence and will of the Turkish Cypriot people. To date, the sole reason UNFICYP has been able to continue its activities within the territory of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been the constructive and good-faith approach of the Turkish Cypriot authorities. Sovereignty within the borders of the TRNC rests exclusively with the Turkish Cypriot people and their State, the TRNC. In this regard, establishing a legitimate legal basis for UNFICYP’s activities in the TRNC through the explicit consent of the Turkish Cypriot side has become an urgent and unavoidable necessity.
UNFICYP, established pursuant to UNSC Resolution 186 of 4 March 1964, has now entered its sixty-second year. Throughout this prolonged period, the Mission has effectively evolved into a de facto guardian of an unsustainable status quo that is acknowledged by all parties, while failing to fulfil its core responsibilities of impartiality and equitable treatment, and failing to exercise the required diligence in this respect.
The United Nations, both in its Security Council resolutions and in its reports, has continued during the current reporting period its practice of deliberately leaving the identity of the responsible party ambiguous in paragraphs relating to the actions of the Greek Cypriot side. Despite clear realities on the ground and information known to the UN officials, the persistent failure to explicitly identify responsibility reinforces the perception that the obligations of the Greek Cypriot side are systematically obscured. This conduct is incompatible with the principle of impartiality and not only undermines factual accuracy but also serves to encourage the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot side.
The Greek Cypriot administration, which claims to be the sole owner of the Island, seeks to extend dominance over the buffer zone and beyond. The United Nations refrains from clearly reflecting recent developments on the ground, including buffer zone and border violations committed by the Greek Cypriot side, and persists in adopting a partial approach on numerous issues such as the fenced-off area of Maraş, confidence-building measures, technical committees, Akyar and the Yiğitler–Pile road. The Greek Cypriot side’s continued pursuit of long-standing hegemonic ambitions over the entire Island and its lack of engagement in genuine efforts towards a fair, lasting and sustainable settlement with the Turkish Cypriots, is a direct consequence of this unjust treatment that encourages them and is reflected in numerous actions of the United Nations. While the constructive stance and concrete proposals put forward by the Turkish side are ignored by the UN, the continued use of vague language that conceals the true sources of the fundamental problems is unacceptable.
In this context, the insistence in the UNSC resolution on an outdated model, such as “bi-communal, bi-zonal federation,” which has repeatedly been proven unsuccessful and whose core principles have never been genuinely accepted by the Greek Cypriot side is unacceptable. At the same time, the attempt to present the never-ending negotiations as a way forward—in other words, condemning the Turkish Cypriots to an unacceptable status quo—constitutes a grave injustice and a profound act of disrespect toward the Turkish Cypriot people.
Today, the only realistic and sustainable solution on the Island lies in the development of good-neighborly relations between the two existing States, based on sovereign equality and equal international status. At this stage, in order to ensure a durable environment of co-operation and stability on the Island, members of the UNSC needs to review their outdated resolutions and adopt a new approach grounded in the reality of two Peoples and two States, each exercising its own sovereign will within its own boundaries.
As with previous UNSC resolutions extending UNFICYP’s mandate, the latest resolution, – characterized by the unlawful treatment of the Greek Cypriot side as a “state” and by its continued failure to uphold the principle of impartiality- is unacceptable.