Nicosia Uncut

In the last month of 2025, Nicosia Uncut producers Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli produced two consecutive and special episodes. Recorded a few days after the first part, the second part focuses on the outcome of the first meeting of leaders with the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar. What are the […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 65: Will...

In the last month of 2025, Nicosia Uncut producers Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli produced two consecutive and special episodes. The first episode focused on the election of Tufan Erhürman in the first round with 63% vote as well as the internal and external dynamics leading to the replacement of previous Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 64: What d...

The Turkish Cypriots will go to the ballots to elect a Turkish Cypriot leader on 19 October 2025. The main contenders are the incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who has been adovcating a two-state solution for the solution of the Cyprus problem and Tufan Erhürman, leader of the opposition, who advocates returning to the […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 63: One week before the...

In this special episode of Nicosia Uncut, UN Secretary General’s outgoing Special Representative and Head of UNFICYP Colin Stewart responded questions by Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli, as well by the podcast audience. Is UN part of the status-quo in Cyprus? What is his assessment for the future? Do we need to revise the job-description […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 6...

On the 51st anniversary of 1974 events, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli host Cey Sesigüzel and Andreas Tokkallos, co-producers of "The Divided Island" documentary at Nicosia Uncut podcast. These two British-Cypriot filmmakers of Two Fresh Productions are hailing from both communities and they featured real stories of Cypriots from various generations. The work is a striking contrast to t...

In this epsiode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı host Nilgün Arısan Eralp, Director of European Union Institute of TEPAV, a leading policy and research centre in Türkiye. Latest state of affairs in Turkish-Greek political dialogue; how will this affect the Cyprus problem? Is it possible to talk about repositioning of the EU towards Turkey? Should we expect Turkey to play...

On 17 and 18 March, the Cypriot leaders and the guarantor powers met with the UN Secretary General in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting was named as informal and nobody was sure what the expected outcome would be as the positions of the sides were clearly not bridgable. In the end, a number of confidence building measures were announced. Appointment of a new envoy was also agreed. In this episode o...

In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli host Fiona Mullen, Director of Sapienta Economics. A 5 party conference on Cyprus is scheduled to take place on 17/18 March 2025 at the UN in Geneva. Apart from the two Cypriot sides, the Guarantor powers, Turkey, Greece and the UK will be represented. […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 58: Cyprus problem in Geneva...

In this first Nicosia Uncut episode of 2025, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli host Dr. Nasia Hadjigeorgiou and Fezile Osum to discuss the bicommunal technical committees that have been established within the framework of Cyprus problem. Both Fezile and Nasia are running the EU funded InPeace Project (Inclusive Peacebuilding: The Technical Committees in Cyprus ) that studies […] The...

Following Guterres’ dinner with the Cypriot leaders in New York, an agreement has been reached to continue informal meetings with the participation of the Guarantor powers. The participation of the UK might not be at the same level as the other two, as the official position of the Turkish/Turkish Cypriot side has been for the […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 56: Multiparty meeting:...

The two Cypriot leaders have agreed to meet for a “social dinner” at the presence of the UN Secretary General. The expectations are low as sides have shown no signs of departure from their respective positions. While the Turkish Cypriot side is adamant on their so called “two states” position, which is vocally and openly […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 55: A dinn...

After a short break, Nicosia Uncut is back with Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli discussing the recent attempts of UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin with the Cypriot leaders. There isn’t a lot of hope for a breakthrough for ther resumption of talks but are we going to see any result at all? A confidence building […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 54: July is the month of Cyprob...

In this episode of Nicosia Uncut; Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli host Fiona Mullen, Director of Sapienta Economics and the producer of Figure It podcast. Fiona has been studying, advising and in the past working on the Cyprus settlement process for more than two decades now. In this episode, they discuss what needs to be […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 53: Special guest Fiona...

UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus Maria Angela Holguín Cuéllar has arrived on the island and started her work by paying a visit to the Cypriot leaders. This new initiative to revive the talks, which collapsed in Crans Montana conference in 2017, is defined as an attempt to find a “common ground” for the […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 52: Million dollar q...

Turkish-Greek reapproachment, appointment of a new envoy for Cyprus talks, ongoing failure of the international community to address burning issues in the world and establishment of a new political party in Cyprus. In this last episode of the year, Nicosia Uncut producers Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli look back to 2023 with a critical eye. […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 51:...

Is Cyprus a “frozen” conflict? What are the risk of it getting melted? As the so called frozen and fluid conflicts turning into active conflicts everywhere in the world, shouldn’t Cypriots be worried? What are the lessons the Cypriots and the international community take from the ongoing conflics in Ukraine, Nogorno Karabakh and Israel/Palestine? In […] The post Nicosia Unc...

The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus has been attacked by the Turkish Cypriot police in the buffer zone close to Pyla village during an ongoing work of fixing a road to connect the bicommunal village to the Turkish Cypriot controlled areas. While the Turkish & Turkish Cypriot side citing humanitarian reasons, the international community as […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 49: Status-q...

We are drowned in elections. Elections in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. Do we have any time or window of opportunity to discuss politics – Cyprus problem in particular? In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı evaluate the results of elections in Turkey and Greece as well as the upcoming by-elections in […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 48: Drowning i...

It has been 20 years since the crossings across the division line in Cyprus started. It is clear that the existing crossings are not enough. Should we expect unilareral initiatives by the Greek Cypriot side on this? While the elections in Turkey are underway, is it possible to talk about a new era for the […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 47: Age of apolitical & discussion on unilateral C...

Election in Cyprus is over as Turkey is now on the eve of the historical election that will take place on 14 May 2023. In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı discuss the cabinet of the newly elected Greek Cypriot president. Turkish opposition finally agreed on their candidate: CHP leader Kemal […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 46: Turkish opposition ch...

While the Turkish Cypriots are mourning for 49 members of their community, including the entire members of two junior volleyball school teams from Famagusta, who lost their lives in the major earthquake that hit Turkey; second round of presidential campaign has been concluded on the other side of the divide. Nikos Christodoulides has been elected […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 45: Niko...

In this first episode of 2023, Nicosia Uncut producers Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı analyze the upcoming elections in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece as well as the recent local elections in north. While the positions of presidential candidates in the Republic of Cyprus are more clear now, in the context of Cyprus problem not much […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 44: 2023 – the ye...

In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı criticize the political establishments on both sides of the divide and highlight the efforts of the civil society to resist partition. Political establishments on the both sides of the divide fail to address the division of the country while the forces of status quo […] The post Nicosia Uncut – Episode 43: Sleepwalki...

In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli shed a critical light on the presidential race in Republic of Cyprus: seems like the political programs are not the main pillars of this elections. A rather superficial race on slogans, characters and personalities, the candidates, save for exceptions, do not offer tangible political programs to the voters. The US has lift...

It is now crystal clear that solution of the Cyprus problem was actually within the reach during 2016 and 2017 summits, it took five years for the Greek Cypriot politics to question the Greek Cypriot leadership's share of responsibility in the failure. While the establishment is fighting the last ditch battle to save Anastasiades and his team from any responsibility by throwing leaked minutes one...