President Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday evening arrived in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya ahead of his planned presence at the United Nations’ Cop31 climate summit, which is being held in the city.

He was greeted upon his arrival in Antalya by Greece’s ambassador in Turkey Theodoros Bizakis and Mehmet Ali Kahraman, the director of Turkey’s Cop31 presidency office, before he and the rest of the Cypriot delegation travelled to the hotel at which they will stay the night ahead of Tuesday’s Cop31 global leaders’ summit – the centrepiece of the Cop31 event.

In visiting Turkey, Christodoulides is the fourth sitting president of the Republic of Cyprus to do so, with Archbishop Makarios, Glafcos Clerides, and his immediate predecessor Nicos Anastasiades all having made trips to Cyprus’ neighbour to the north during their terms in office.

However, given that the Republic of Cyprus is not recognised by the Republic of Turkey, he could not fly to Antalya directly, despite the fact that the city is visible from the hills above Kyrenia on a clear night.

Instead, he and the rest of the Republic of Cyprus’ delegation flew from Larnaca westwards to the Greek island of Rhodes, which itself lies west of Antalya, before then heading back eastwards to Turkey’s fourth-largest city.

In addition, he is not the only Cypriot leader who has made the trip to Antalya, with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman also set to be in attendance at the Cop31 summit, and the offices of both Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel and opposition party CTP leader Sila Usar Incirli confirming to the Cyprus Mail that they will both be at the conference on Tuesday.

Christodoulides’ participation had initially been in doubt

It had initially been in doubt whether Christodoulides would be able to attend the summit, given the fact that Turkey does not recognise him as a head of state, but he confirmed last month that he had secured an invite.

“I am pleased that, thanks to the decisive contribution of our partners, and following our diplomatic and political efforts conducted away from the public eye, we have achieved a result,” he said at the time, with other European Union member states and the institutions of the EU itself having stepped in to ensure that he would not be left out.

On this front, European Climate Commissioner Wokpe Hoekstra was keen to set his stall out as early as June, warning at the time that “we are not going to accept” the prospect of Cyprus not being invited to the summit.

“The full solidarity of the other 26 will apply,” he said, in reference to the EU’s 26 other member states, adding that “there are 27 member states that need to be treated in the same way”, and that “this is a union of 27, full stop”.

Likewise, Poland’s secretary of state for climate affairs Krysztof Bolesta said that “if Cyprus is unfairly treated, we should not be going to Turkey”, while Irish Climate Minister Darragh O’Brien told Reuters that his country stands in “full solidarity with Cyprus”, and that “this situation doesn’t need to escalate”.

Ireland will be Christodoulides’ next destination after leaving Antalya, as he is set to attend Thursday’s European Political Community summit and Friday’s informal European Council summit, both of which are set to take place in Dublin.