Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu on Tuesday met Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Kemal Bozay in Nicosia, with the former having been something of an outlier in refusing to offer his support for, and at times being outright critical of the “new initiative” being undertaken with the aim of bringing about a resumption of negotiations in earnest on the Cyprus problem.

Ertugruloglu’s office reported that during Tuesday’s meeting, the pair had discussed “relations between the ministries and regional developments”.

Criticism of the “new initiative” on the ‘ministry’s’ part came most notably last week in its reaction to the announcement that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Cyprus next week, highlighting thatUN envoy Maria Angela Holguin had in July last year said that no common ground for a solution exists between the island’s two sides.

The state of affairs has changed since then, with pro-federal solution candidate Tufan Erhurman being electedas Turkish Cypriot leader in October last year, with he and President Nikos Christodoulides agreeing in December last year that “the real aim is a solution … with political equality”, and Guterres having undertaken a “new initiative” to bring about talks in recent months.

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Despite this, the ‘ministry’ asserted that “the TRNC entirely rejects these new developments as initiatives aimed at mortgaging the will of the Turkish Cypriot people”, and warned that “bringing back previously failed models in different forms does not contribute to the search for an agreement”.

Instead, it said, it “only serves to perpetuate the current status quo which benefits the Greek Cypriots”.

It therefore called on the UN to “recognise the just and legitimate status of the Turkish Cypriot people, to lift the isolation of the TRNC without further delay, and to respect the existence of two sovereign, equal states and two peoples on the island of Cyprus”.

This position has come in direct contravention to that of the foreign ministry in Ankara, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan having last month signed a joint declaration offering his support for Guterres’ efforts in Cyprus with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, and Internal Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner.

Guterres visit to Cyprus will be preceded by Holguin travelling to both Brussels and Ankara, where she is expected to meet Fidan on Friday, while Fidan also discussed the Cyprus problem with Guterres during a telephone call last week.

With Turkey having offered its support for Guterres’ efforts in Cyprus, efforts have been made to bring dissenting voices in northern Cyprus onside.

The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli disclosed earlier this month that Turkey’s foreign ministry had telephoned him to tell him that “my comment was very unfair, wrong, and incomplete” after he criticised Turkey’s endorsement of Guterres’ ongoing efforts.

He said he had been told to “be patient” and to “not panic”, and said that he now “regretted” not having consulted his contacts in Ankara before issuing the initial criticism.