What Living Under ISIS Taught Me About Extremism
13 November 2026
141. The President of Cyprus: Iran, Israel, and the Cyprus Issue (Nikos Christodoulides)
-
Leading
-
30 June 2025
What role does Cyprus play in the Middle East conflicts? How can Europe and the United Kingdom strengthen their relations during this tumultuous time? How can governments fight corruption?
Rory and Alastair are joined by Nikos Christodoulides, the President of Cyprus, to discuss all this and more.
The Rest Is Politics Plus: Become a member for exclusive bonus content, early access to Question Time episodes to live show tickets, ad-free listening for both TRIP and Leading, our exclusive newsletter, discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, and our members’ chatroom on Discord. Join today or enjoy a free trial at therestispolitics.com.
Sign up to Revolut Business today via: https://get.revolut.com/z4lF/leading, and add money to your account to get a £200 welcome bonus. This offer’s only available until 7th July 2025 and other T&Cs apply.
Instagram: @restispolitics
Twitter: @restispolitics
Email: therestispolitics@goalhanger.com
Social Producer: Harry Balden
Video Editor: Josh Smith
Assistant Producers: Alice Horrell
Producers: Nicole Maslen
Senior Producer: Dom Johnson
Head of Content: Tom Whiter
Exec Producers: Tony Pastor, Jack Davenport
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It is interesting to compare the Northern Ireland and Cyprus peace processes, why one was able to lead to agreement while the other has lingered. The key reason why Northern Ireland ‘succeeded’ and Cyprus ‘failed’ is the following, in my view:
In 1990, Peter Brooke, Northern Ireland secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government, stated that Britain had ‘no selfish strategic or economic interest’ in Northern Ireland. It was therefore thrown onto the nationalist and loyalist communities to work out their differences and come to a power-sharing deal.
In Cyprus, these power-sharing arrangements between Greek and Turkish Cypriots have largely been agreed; but the sticking point to a comprehensive deal has been Turkey’s demands to retain a presence and influence on the island, indeed extend its influence from the occupied areas of the island to all areas of the island.
Thus, in 2008, former Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu was clear that Turkey sees Cyprus as part of its span of control: ‘Even if there was not one Muslim Turk there, Turkey had to maintain a Cyprus problem. No country can stay indifferent towards such an island, located in the heart of its very own vital space.’