United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would do everything in his power to resolve the Cyprus problem, until his term ends at the end of this year.

“We are working very hard to resolve the Cyprus problem. I would not say we are close, but we have made positive progress. We have restarted communications. Our sole aim is for the people of the island to benefit from all the opportunities of the modern world,” he told Turkish news website NTV.

He added that he is “neither optimistic nor pessimistic” regarding the prospects for a solution, but that he remains “determined”.

“I will do everything in my power to resolve the Cyprus problem until the last day of my term,” he said.

Guterres made the statements while in Turkey, having visited the country to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

While in Turkey, he met both the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, with the former awarding him the Ataturk International Peace Prize, named after Turkey’s founding president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,

He is only the twelfth recipient of the prize, and the first since 2000. Notable other recipients include Nelson Mandela and the late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

At the ceremony held to give Guterres the award, Erdogan said that the secretary-general is “the voice of the silent majority in establishing international peace and security”.

“We continue to keep the principle of ‘peace at home, peace in the world’, inherited from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of our republic, at the heart of our foreign policy, blending it with a proactive, assertive, and entrepreneurial approach,” he said.

He added that “for 80 years, we have been one of the strongest supporters of the founding values of the United Nations, which represent the common conscience of humanity, the will for global solidarity, and hope for the future”.

Guterres, meanwhile, said that “the significance of this award cannot be separated from the life and legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk”.

“Through the challenges he faced and the leadership he demonstrated, Ataturk understood that peace does not come by chance. Peace is a choice. Peace is a choice which takes place within social harmony and develops through international cooperation,” he said.

He later added that he had chosen to visit Turkey “to draw attention to the extraordinary and magnanimous spirit of the Turkish people”, before making reference to the large flows of refugees entering Turkey from the Middle East in recent years.

“In an unprecedented situation of displacement, Turkey opened its doors, and millions of people fled violence and persecution to Turkey,” he said.

After leaving Turkey, Guterres will travel to Brussels, where he is expected to meet President Nikos Christodoulides next Wednesday.

Next week’s meeting comes a month after Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had met Guterres in New York, with Erhurman saying after that meeting that with regard to talks aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem, “this time it must be different”.