President Nikos Christodoulides on Sunday said he is “cautiously optimistic” over the prospects for the Cyprus problem.

“Without downplaying the challenges and the difficulties, I believe that the small steps which are being taken allow us to be cautiously optimistic. The result of our efforts maintains hope and allows us, through assertive realism, to continue the effort to see our homeland liberated,” he said at a memorial for Eoka fighters from the Troodos mountain village of Saranti.

“To justify their sacrifice, we must work to restore the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus, through a solution which will liberate our homeland from the shackles of Turkish occupation, reunite it, and make it safe and prosperous for all of our people.”

He added that he has been “working to achieve this supreme goal” since his first day in office, and that this work has been carried out “on the basis of a specific plan and design”.

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This design, he said, includes a “dynamic foreign policy” and “the strengthening of ties with strategic partners, with our role within the European Union, but also in the wider region”.

He said that this has gone hand-in-hand with “the change in the image and the reputation of our country and with the strengthening of economy”.

This, he added, has seen his government “succeed in reactivating the international factor” of the Cyprus problem and in “starting the processes which we hope will lead to the goal of substantive talks”.

The next opportunity for talks on the Cyprus problem to take place will come late next month when the third enlarged meeting of the year will take place in New York, involving Cyprus’ two sides, the United Nations, and the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Efforts to restart substantial talks on the Cyprus problem may be helped by next Sunday’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, with incumbent Ersin Tatar set to be challenged by former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution – the model ostensibly favoured by Christodoulides.

However, the Turkish government has made no secret of the fact that it would prefer to see Tatar re-elected, with a wave of officials from Turkey having visited the island in the runup to the election.

At present, Tatar’s campaign is being fronted by Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, who arrived on the island on Thursday night for the third time since the start of August and headlined another campaign event at northern Nicosia’s Near East University on Saturday.

It is expected that Yilmaz will also headline Tatar’s rally in Kyrenia on Monday night.

Aside from Yilmaz, who during his previous visit made a speech at a Tatar campaign stop and was joined there by Turkish ambassador in Nicosia Ali Murat Basceri, former interior minister Suleyman Soylu, former defence minister Hulusi Akar, opposition Zafer Party leader Umit Ozdag, and former footballer Mesut Ozil have all visited the island in recent weeks to declare their support for Ersin Tatar.

Meanwhile, newspaper Kibris, which has been under Turkish ownership since 2022, published a poll which placed Tatar ahead in the race which was later declared “misleading” by the Turkish Cypriot media ethics board.

Prior to that, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out any return to negotiations towards a federal solution to the Cyprus problem, regardless of who wins next month’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

“The matter of federation is now closed for us. No one can draw us back into talks for a federation with wordplay. Turkish Cypriots will never accept being a minority on the island. The only realistic solution is to accept the existence of two states on the island,” he said.

These actions have drawn reactions from both Cyprus and Turkey, with Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci having described Ozil’s visit as “interference”, and described Ozil himself as a “model for the government’s public relations agency”.