We did not think President Nikos Christodoulides could top his most recent meaningless statement so soon after the last one but his intent to invite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to an EU summit in Cyprus a year from now was so pointless as to be naïve, delusional or just a massive virtue-signal.

We’ll go with the latter given that Christodoulides’ tends to pander to whomever he is speaking to at the time with an eye on saying “the right thing”. 

He made the Erdogan comments during a British podcast about Cyprus’ EU rotating presidency in the first half of 2026 when he intends to host an EU council with the participation of countries from the broader region, including the Gulf and India.

It’s not that this is a bad idea despite the delusions of grandeur where he sees the goal of Cyprus’ presidency being “to bring the EU closer to its neighbouring regions”.

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Asked whether Erdogan would be included in the invites, Christodoulides may have been put on the spot in the moment and answered in the affirmative.

He should have left it at that but went on to plaster on some icing – or to use his favourite phrase “added value” to his comments.

“I said of course there was no problem on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus,” he said, adding that Cyprus wanted Turkey to be close to the EU and that Erdogan would be welcome at the EU council meeting to discuss developments in the region.  

Really? The leader of the occupying power – to use Cyprob parlance – would be welcome in Cyprus?

Erdogan would never set foot in the Republic of Cyprus which Turkey does not even recognise and the president knows this. He might have mentioned that when he answered the interviewer but he seemed to be on a roll about pressing home the fact that it would not be an EU invite but “I repeat – at the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus.”

All of this was for foreign consumption to signal that “we’re the good guys”, which even that could be excused if it we’re for the fact that Christodoulides has spent a good part of his presidency unsuccessfully trying to have the EU impose sanctions on Turkey and block its path to membership by insisting this be linked to the Cyprus issue.

It was only four months ago in comments about Russia and Ukraine, that Christodoulides questioned Turkey’s role in any EU security discussions. Turkey should be left out of summits called by European countries, he said.

“How can Turkey, a country that illegally occupies European territory, have any role in matters of security and guarantees?” he asked.

Christodoulides’ seemingly throwaway comments to the British podcast have not gone unnoticed domestically.

He has been criticised for acting unilaterally on the Cyprus issue in order “to create impressions”.

Saying he planned to invite Erdogan to Cyprus without consultations or discussions or evaluating the implications or symbolism with other Cyprob stakeholders, has not gone down well at home.

“High-visibility moves with little substance,” one former ambassador said. That about sums up our current president.