Erdoğan’s AKP office in occupied Nicosia: Commission calls the building “private property of heritage value”

The European Commission describes as “private property of heritage value” the historic building in occupied Nicosia where Turkey’s ruling party, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP (Justice and Development Party), has set up a representation office. The position is contained in the written answer of Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, dated October 22, 2026, to a question from Cypriot MEP Giorgos Georgiou (The Left).

Georgiou’s question had been submitted on June 24, prompted by reports of the office’s inauguration. The Cypriot MEP argued that Erdoğan’s party was housed in a building that, according to the reports, is a cultural heritage monument, that the necessary permits were not issued and that there is no clear legal framework for foreign parties operating in the northern part of the island. For him, the move shows that Ankara is increasingly extending its political and administrative presence in the territories it occupies, at the expense of the sovereignty of a European Union member state.

He asked the Commission whether it sees in the AKP office one more intrusion on European territory and whether it plans a statement or démarche, how the listed buildings of the occupied areas will be protected from unauthorised use, and whether it will raise the matter in EU–Turkey relations, with reference to the UN resolutions.

What Kos replies

Kos replies on behalf of the Commission that Brussels is aware of the reports. “Turkey is expected to respect international law, good neighbourly relations and the sovereignty of Member States,” she writes. She adds that the Commission has repeated to the Turkish authorities, in bilateral contacts, that the Union supports a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem under the UN, based on Security Council resolutions, the acquis and the principles on which the EU is founded, and that it expects Ankara to help restart negotiations.

On cultural heritage, the Commissioner refers to the bicommunal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, which the Union has funded since 2012. The funds reach €35 million, cover about 80% of its costs and come from the programme of support for the Turkish Cypriot community. The Commission’s tally: more than 200 monuments, religious and cultural, have been restored or protected across the island.

Talks next week, and Bahçeli’s “Cyprus is Turkish”

The answer comes a few days before a new meeting of President Nikos Christodoulides with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman, on Tuesday, October 27 at 09:00, under UN auspices. As government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis announced, the two leaders will then jointly meet the Technical Committees on Youth and Cultural Heritage, as well as the Coordinating Committee of the Civil Society Advisory Body.

In Ankara, however, Erdoğan’s governing partner moves in the opposite direction. MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli declared that “Cyprus is Turkish”, rejected a federal solution and described the island as a strategic centre of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine. The island’s northern part has been under Turkish military occupation since the 1974 invasion, in breach of UN Security Council resolutions.