Cyprus writes to Guterres on the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum: a “non-existent maritime boundary” and “deliberate escalation”

The Republic of Cyprus is taking its reaction to the approval of the illegal 2019 Turkish-Libyan memorandum by the House of Representatives based in eastern Libya to the United Nations. In a letter to Secretary-General António Guterres, dated October 23, 2026 and signed by Ambassador Maria Michael, Cyprus’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Nicosia voices “serious concerns about the motives behind this move and the interests it aims to serve”.

The letter concerns the decision of October 20. The Cypriot side recalls that its positions are not new: it had already made them known to the Organization in earlier communications, on January 20, April 24 and July 20, 2020, and in a note verbale on August 18, 2025. “The independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Libya must not be subordinated to the geopolitical pursuits and ambitions of third states,” the text stresses.

Ankara and the “deliberate policy of escalation”

Nicosia’s target is Turkey, which, the letter says, exploits Libya’s political and institutional situation to advance maritime claims with no legal basis. According to the Cypriot letter, Ankara is trying “to impose an artificial maritime reality at the expense of the sovereign rights of third states.” These are actions, it continues, that reveal “a deliberate policy of escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean”, undermine international law and constitute “a serious threat to regional peace, security and stability.” The accusation carries particular weight coming from a state whose northern territory has been under Turkish occupation since the 1974 invasion.

Legally, Cyprus argues that the memorandum is incompatible with international law, first and foremost with the rules on the conclusion of international treaties and with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It therefore “does not produce legal effects for third parties” and does not affect the rights of any third state in the maritime zones. Athens takes the same line, while the US State Department has called for good-faith negotiations.

A boundary that ignores the Greek islands

The Cypriot letter points out that Turkey and Libya, two countries that “do not have opposite or adjacent coasts”, attempted to delimit maritime zones between themselves. In this way, it notes, “a non-existent maritime boundary” was drawn, deliberately disregarding the rights of other coastal states and of the Greek islands. Nicosia cites Article 121(2) of UNCLOS, which, it explains, expresses customary international law and therefore binds even countries that have not signed the Convention. The provision expressly gives islands a right to a “territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.”

Delimitation agreements, the letter concludes, must be concluded between states with opposite or adjacent coasts, “in good faith and in accordance with the established principles of international law.” Ambassador Michael asks that the letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and published in the Law of the Sea Bulletin. The Cypriot government had already called the approval illegal and null and void, and on the same day Greece also sent a letter to Guterres.