Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday met and discussed the Cyprus problem, among other issues, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York

While little detail was offered about the content of the meeting, Guterres’ office stated that he and Erdogan had “exchanged views on Cyprus, the situation in the Middle East, Libya, and Ukraine”.

The Turkish presidential communications directorate, meanwhile, made no mention of Cyprus, stating that “regional and global issues, particularly Israel’s attacks on Gaza, were discussed during the meeting”.

“Erdogan stated during the meeting that Israeli aggression targets not only Palestinians but also regional and global peace, and that the international community must increase its pressure on Israel to ensure uninterrupted access of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the communications directorate said.

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It added that Erdogan had also “stated that the need for revisions in the UN’s system has become clear in recent years” and that “Turkey will continue to make every possible contribution for the work to be done”.

Additionally, it said, Erdogan had said “that the importance of maintaining world peace has been better understood in light of the challenges the world has faced in recent years”.

Erdogan had made his speech to the general assembly hours earlier, saying that a solution to the Cyprus problem “cannot be built on the federal model, which has been attempted numerous times before but failed due to the Greek Cypriot side’s uncompromising stance”.

“There are two separate states and two separate peoples on the island of Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are equal owners of the island and cannot accept being a minority. The international community must end the unjust isolation to which the Turkish Cypriots have been subjected for half a century,” he said.

As such, he said, “I reiterate the call I made at the last three United Nations general assemblies”.

“I invite the international community to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and to establish diplomatic, political and economic relations.”