President Nikos Christodoulides said that though he is ready to make certain concessions in a Cyprus settlement, the return of Morphou is “non-negotiable”.

Speaking at the 46th anti-occupation event organised by Morphou municipality on Saturday night, he stressed that “[he] remains primarily a realist” and that he acknowledged the limitations of the Greek Cypriot side.

Concessions would be made only on points that serve a “functional and sustainable” solution, and anything outside that framework “could not be accepted”.

He ruled out actions designed to create “temporary mobility” or “false hopes”.

On Morphou, he said the negotiating acquis includes the return of the city, a position he claimed the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself has indicated, and that “the government supports this aim and will not abandon it”.

Christodoulides said his mandate is to “turn the Republic into a modern state, sovereign across its territory, without an occupying army or guarantors with intervention rights”.

He said he will keep working with political parties to use the “last glimmer of hope”.

Morphou, a citrus-growing town west of Nicosia, remains an emotive issue for Greek Cypriots, many of whom see failure to return it as a dealbreaker.

Prior to the Turkish invasion of 1974, some 6,500 Greek Cypriots resided there, against about 30,000 Turkish Cypriots there today.

The 2002 to 2004 Annan Plan provided for the return of Morphou and surrounding villages to Greek Cypriot administration, though not the district’s coastline.

Turkish Cypriots backed the plan in the 2004 referendum with 65 per cent, while 76 per cent of Greek Cypriots rejected it.

The question returned at the 2017 Crans-Montana conference, with the framework put forward by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres envisaging the return of “a location”, widely taken to mean Morphou.

The Greek Cypriot map included Morphou’s return while the Turkish Cypriot map did not.

The Turkish Cypriot side reportedly offered to return part of the town but wanted to keep more territory than Greek Cypriots were prepared to accept, with the Greek Cypriots aim to reduce Turkish Cypriot control from 37 per cent of the island to about 28 per cent.