NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkey on Wednesday again insisted on a two-state peace accord in ethnically divided Cyprus as the United Nations prepares to meet with all sides in early spring in hopes of restarting formal talks to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Cyprus “must continue on the path of a two-state solution” and that expending efforts on other arrangements ending Cyprus’ half-century divide would be “a waste of time.”
Fidan spoke to reporters after talks with Ersin Tatar, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots whose declaration of independence in 1983 in Cyprus’ northern third is recognized only by Turkey.
Cyprus’ ethnic division occurred in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup, sponsored by the junta then ruling Greece, that aimed to unite the island in the eastern Mediterranean with the Greek state.
The most recent major push for a peace deal collapsed in 2017.
Since then, Turkey has advocated for a two-state arrangement in which the numerically fewer Turkish Cypriots would never be the minority in any power-sharing arrangement.
But Greek Cypriots do not support a two-state deal that they see as formalizing the island’s partition and perpetuating what they see as a threat of a permanent Turkish military presence on the island.
Greek Cypriot officials have maintained that the 2017 talks collapsed primarily on Turkey’s insistence on permanently keeping at least some of its estimated 35,000 troops currently in the island's breakaway north, and on enshrining military intervention rights in any new peace deal.
The U.N. the European Union and others have rejected a two-state deal for Cyprus, saying the only way forward is a federation agreement with Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot zones.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is preparing to host an informal meeting in Switzerland in March to hear what each side envisions for a peace deal. Last year, an envoy Guterres dispatched to Cyprus reportedly concluded that there's no common ground for a return to talks.
The island’s Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides says he’s ready to resume formal talks immediately but has ruled out any discussion on a two-state arrangement.
Tatar, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, said the meeting will bring together the two sides in Cyprus, the foreign ministers of “guarantor powers” Greece and Turkey and a senior British official to chart “the next steps” regarding Cyprus’ future.
A peace deal would not only remove a source of instability in the eastern Mediterranean, but could also expedite the development of natural gas deposits inside Cyprus' offshore economic zone that Turkey disputes.
U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar shake hands as they attend the U.N.'s end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the U.N buffer zone in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the U.N.'s end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the U.N buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A judge barred the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately moving to shut down a small federal agency that supports investment in African countries on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington issued the order hours after the filing of a lawsuit by the president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation.
Ward Brehm said in a complaint that he directed his staff on Wednesday to deny building entry to staffers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and Pete Marocco, the deputy administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
DOGE and Trump do not have the authority to shut down the agency, which was created by Congress, Brehm said in the complaint.
The order from Leon, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, bars Brehm from being removed or DOGE from adding members to the board over the next few days.
Brehm also said that days after President Donald Trump targeted the agency in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government, staffers from DOGE tried to access the organization's computer systems.
“When USADF learned that DOGE was there to kill the agency, USADF staff refused DOGE access to cancel all grants and contracts,” said the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, “Entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the President of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration mandated DOGE and Musk, the world’s richest man whose businesses have federal contracts, to root out waste, fraud and abuse and to help reduce the nation’s debt load.
Brehm said in his complaint that DOGE and Marocco, a Trump political appointee helping shutter USAID, also recently targeted the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin American and the Caribbean.
On Tuesday, DOGE said on X that all but one employee at IAF had been let go and its grants cancelled, including funding for alpaca farming in Peru, for vegetable gardens in El Salvador and for beekeeping in Brazil.
Trump is also targeting the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington-based think tank, and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Both entities, which were created by Congress, continue to operate and say they are compiling information requests from the White House.
The National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit that helps combat authoritarianism around the world, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying in a complaint that it had been denied access to its funding, “something that has never occurred before in the Endowment’s forty-two-year existence.”
In 2023, it reported issuing $238 million in grants, including through the International Republican Institute, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio formerly served as a board member.
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this story.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Elon Musk departs the Capitol following a meeting with Senate Republicans, in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
