Cyprus Whole and Free: Europe’s Last Divide Country… Why the Mission of the European Commission’s Special Envoy for the Cyprus Question Must Not Fail?

By Euripides L. Evriviades* – Nicosia

The recent appointment of former European Commissioner Johannes Hahn as the European Commission’s (EC) special envoy for the Cyprus question is a welcome development.

It reaffirms that the EU has not forgotten that one of its member states remains divided—under military occupation by a third country and a NATO member to boot. Half a century after the 1974 Turkish invasion, Cyprus still awaits justice.

But if this appointment is to be more than merely symbolic, it must be matched by strategic resolve.

• The post-Cold War vision of a “Europe Whole and Free” largely materialized after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yet Cyprus, a member of the EU, remains a glaring exception. It is time that the principle of unity and freedom is applied to Cyprus as well. Cyprus Whole and Free must now become EU policy.

A future settlement must reunite Cyprus without overlords, guarantor powers, or so-called rights of unilateral intervention—anachronisms from another, darker era. Cyprus is not a satrapy. Its people do not need diktats. They need the full rights and protections afforded by the EU acquis. Cyprus must become a normal EU state.

Cyprus belongs to all its people: Cypriots of Greek, Turkish, Maronite, Armenian, and Latin ethnic background. Cyprus- Kıbrıs – Κύπρος is our common homeland. It’s a quilt. In a democratic, sovereign federal Republic, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law must apply equally to all, without exception.

Mr. Hahn brings valuable experience from Brussels. But the Cyprus question is not bureaucratic: it is geopolitical. The presence of Turkish occupation forces on EU soil, the illegal colonization of the occupied north, destruction of heritage, and property usurpation, cannot be normalized.

• We must also acknowledge that both Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks have legitimate security concerns, shaped by history and experience. Cypriot Turks seek political equality, protection of their identity and effective participation in future government structures. Cypriot Greeks still live with the legacy of invasion, occupation, and forced displacement—along with the full range of human rights violations that accompany any such occupation. A just solution must deliver justice, dignity, safety, and mutual trust for all.

The Treaty of Guarantee belongs in the past.  It is a throwback to the pre-WWII period. Future security arrangements should be rooted in modern multilateral principles—such as those offered by the EU or NATO—ensuring that no one in Cyprus feels dominated or marginalized.

The EC has stated that Mr. Hahn will work “in close cooperation” with the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, María Ángela Holguín, and “contribute to the settlement process within the UN framework.” His mandate must be meaningful. Without real leverage, we risk repeating the pattern of diplomacy-as-theatre: process without progress.

The Cyprus problem is not frozen; it is deteriorating. Since the failure at Crans-Montana in 2017, the absence of negotiations has allowed faits accomplis to deepen mistrust and entrench division.

• The EU has moral authority, legal tools, and economic leverage. It must use them. Its newly launched SAFE initiative—a €150 billion defense instrument open to third-country participation under strict conditions—offers a timely example. Turkey’s potential engagement in SAFE should be contingent on verifiable progress on Cyprus. The principle is simple: trust, but verify.

The EU cannot credibly defend democracy and rule of law in Ukraine, Gaza, or the South Caucasus while tolerating occupation within its own borders. Brussels must act. European security architecture cannot be complete without resolving the Cyprus issue.

Mr. Hahn must not become another well-meaning footnote. He must be empowered to engage Ankara and insist that Turkey align its EU aspirations with respect for member state sovereignty and international law. Engagement without conditions has failed before. It’s time for accountability.

Turkey’s reaction to the Hahn appointment underscores the challenge. While not outright rejecting it, Ankara dismissed it as an “internal EU matter,” accused Brussels of bias, and insisted on negotiations “between two states with sovereign equality”, a stance that contradicts UN parameters and the agreed federal framework.

Yet Turkey continues to seek EU membership and a stronger role within Europe’s evolving security and foreign policy architecture.

These ambitions require compliance with the very EU acquis it now resists. After a solution, Cyprus will remain a sovereign EU member state, participating in all EU policies and decisions. Any settlement must therefore be fully compatible with EU law, i.e., covering trade, competition, judicial cooperation, and critically, foreign policy and fundamental freedoms. Otherwise, Cyprus risks institutional gridlock within the Union, and Turkey’s own accession trajectory could be fundamentally undermined.

• The mandate of Mr. Hahn must anchor any outcome in EU law and counter Ankara’s claims of bias with legal clarity and consistency. As the saying goes, the EU solves problems by embracing them. Cyprus must be embraced, not managed, sidelined, or postponed.

Cyprus is not a bargaining chip. It is a European democracy, and must be treated as such. Democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are not negotiable.

As Europe builds strategic autonomy, it must also complete its unfinished business. The division of Cyprus has been tolerated far for too long. But anomalies, if left unchecked, become dangerous.

• It is time to bring the Cyprus question back to the centre of Europe’s conscience. Let “Cyprus Whole and Free” be more than a slogan. Let it be a strategic imperative.

I have delivered countless addresses on the Cyprus question. Time and again, I was asked: “But what do you want?”

My answer has always been simple and clear:

The people of Cyprus are not children of a lesser God. They are baked under the same sun.

• We want nothing more—and nothing less—than what every citizen in a democratic EU country takes for granted: Freedom. Democracy. The rule of law. Respect for sovereignty. Human rights.

We seek no privileges. Only parity.

No dominance. Only dignity.

No foreign tutelage. Only self-respect.

Cyprus deserves to stand whole and free. Not as a divided relic of Cold War geopolitics, but as a modern, unified, democratic European state.

* Euripides L Evriviades
Former Ambassador to the US and High Commissioner to the UK.
Senior Fellow, Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs, University of Nicosia