President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman sent a message in support of the island’s future reunification by jointly attending the bicommunal Peace Festival held in the village of Pyla on the evening of 17 October.
💬 Nikos Christodoulides:
“We are sending a message of peaceful coexistence [between the two Cypriot communities] and of the need to finally reunite our homeland.”
The President also reiterated a point he had made earlier in an interview with Turkish Cypriot media: “If it were entirely up to Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, our homeland would certainly have been reunited.” His remarks alluded to the role of Cyprus’s three guarantor powers – the United Kingdom, Greece and Türkiye. He stressed, however, that this did not absolve the Cypriot communities themselves or their leaders of responsibility for finding a solution to the island’s division.
According to Christodoulides, he and Erhürman favour making joint appearances at festivals and other public events “a regular practice.” He described the revival of the Peace Festival in Pyla after a six-year hiatus as “an initiative that should be continued.”
📍 Pyla is a village with a mixed Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot population, situated in the buffer zone northeast of Larnaca and policed by UN personnel.
🎙 In comments to the TASS news agency, Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Murat Zyazikov welcomed the contacts between the leaders of the island’s two communities (18 October 2026).
💬 We note with satisfaction the renewed momentum in intercommunal dialogue, fostered by the joint participation of Nikos Christodoulides and Tufan Erhürman in the Peace Festival – a step towards bringing the Cypriot sides’ positions closer together and narrowing differences in their approaches to resolving the Cyprus problem.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia continues to follow the Cyprus settlement process closely and to advocate a comprehensive, viable and just solution to the Cyprus problem that serves, first and foremost, the interests of both communities on the island, while also ensuring peace, security and stability throughout the Eastern Mediterranean.
Moscow maintains that only the Cypriots themselves can achieve a lasting settlement on the island through constructive intercommunal dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations, which has been and remains a key forum for resolving the problems and differences that arise in a multipolar world.
