Raffaele Fitto got his meeting. He did not get a seat, and he left with a list.

The latest. TRNC President Tufan Erhürman received the European Commission vice-president, who is also the Union's Special Representative for Cyprus, at the Presidency Office in Lefkoşa on Friday 31 July 2026. In a written statement afterwards, Erhürman said he had told Fitto the EU cannot take part as a party at any negotiating table, and that it could play a positive role on confidence-building measures if it wants to help. He also set out four specific grievances. The same day in Ankara, Hakan Fidan received TRNC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel, with no readout published.

Two sentences, and the second one matters

The TRNC's foreign ministry had already said, before the meeting, that Fitto's appointment carried no legitimacy and that there was no question of treating him as a counterpart in any way.

Erhürman drew a line through the middle of that.

"For reasons known to everyone it is not possible for the EU to take part as a party at a possible negotiating table," he said he told Fitto, "but if it wants to contribute to a just and lasting solution on the island, it can play a positive role on EU-linked confidence-building measures."

That is a closed door and an open one in the same breath, and the second half is the newer thing. The Turkish Cypriot side needs confidence-building measures not only with the Greek Cypriot leadership, Erhürman said, but with the Union as well.

The list

Four items, and they are the substance of what the TRNC wants from Brussels.

The Direct Trade Regulation, which Erhürman said should be brought into force without further delay. The difficulties in applying the Green Line Regulation. The negative developments around Turkish Cypriots' EU citizenship. And property.

He also told Fitto that the time to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots came long ago, and that they have shown their will for a solution clearly and more than once.

The grievance starts in 2004

Erhürman told Fitto that recent conduct by EU institutions has shaken Turkish Cypriot confidence further, and he named the European Parliament first among them, citing one-sided and partisan attitudes and decisions.

The foreign ministry puts the origin of the problem earlier and more precisely. The Union lost its impartiality on Cyprus, it says, when it admitted the Greek Cypriot administration as a member in 2004 while disregarding the will of the Turkish Cypriot people.

That year is the whole argument. The Annan Plan went to referendum on both sides of the island in 2004. Turkish Cypriots voted for it. Greek Cypriots voted it down. The Republic of Cyprus joined the Union anyway.

Twenty-two years later the envoy of that Union arrived to be told he may help with confidence-building measures but not sit at the table.

Ankara, the same afternoon

Fidan received Üstel in Ankara on Friday. The foreign ministry said the meeting took place and released nothing about what was said in it.

Üstel had set out his position the previous week, welcoming a formulation of Fidan's that the TRNC has been quoting since: no approach that fails to recognize the inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot people, meaning their sovereign equality and equal international status, will serve a solution. Turkish Cypriots were equal founding partners of the 1960 Republic, Üstel said, and no approach that reduces them to minority status will be accepted.

Neither the European Union nor the Greek Cypriot side has responded to Erhürman's account of the meeting.