FILE - U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart, center, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, left, and the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar talk as they attend the UN's end of year reception at Ledras Palace inside the U.N buffer zone in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Turkish Cypriot leader in the breakaway north of the ethnically divided island of Cyprus is toeing Ankara's line and doesn't really speak for the local community there, an activist group said.

The accusations came after Sener Elcil of the newly formed Patriotic Turkish Cypriot Movement, a network of nongovernmental organizations and leftist parties, met with the island’s Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.

Cyprus was divided when Turkey invaded the northern part of the island in 1974, following a failed, Athens junta-backed coup by supporters of union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains more than 35,000 troops in the island’s northern third.

Although Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, only the Greek Cypriot south, where the internationally recognized government is seated, enjoys full membership benefits.

Elcin's movement says the island's Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar follows Turkey's directives for partitioning Cyprus into two states.

Turkish Cypriots urgently need an internationally negotiated deal to safeguard their distinct identity as inhabitants of the island because they’re being overwhelmed by a continuous population transfer from neighboring Turkey, he said.

"Tatar is representing Turkey also because he is behaving like a civil servant of Turkey,” Elcil said.

The meeting with Christodoulides came ahead of a United Nations-led meeting next week in Geneva bringing together the rival Cypriot leaders, the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey, and Britain's envoy for Europe to scope out chances of resuming formal peace talks.

U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres will host the two-day gathering, which starts Monday, in hopes of breathing new life in the Cyprus peace process that has been in hiatus for nearly eight years, after the last round of negotiations collapsed amid much acrimony.

No major breakthrough is expected in Geneva, but officials say they are looking for a “positive outcome” that would inject some momentum in the peace process.

Tatar has repeatedly said he would go to Geneva to rally for a two-state deal, claiming that the “old model” of resolving one of the world’s most intractable disputes — a federation made up of Greek and Turkish speaking zones — is no longer valid after decades of failure.

Greek Cypriots insist any deal that entrenches the island’s partition is a non-starter as it contravenes long-held U.N. resolutions endorsing a federation.

They also reject a Turkish and Turkish Cypriot demand for a permanent Turkish troop presence and military intervention rights under any accord, as well as a giving the minority Turkish Cypriots veto power over all federal-level government decisions.

Elcil colleague in the movement, Izzet Izcan, said the majority of Turkish Cypriots believe a federation is the “only solution” for Cyprus.

Tatar is up for reelection in the local vote in the northern part of Cyprus in October and Elcil said he is concerned it will be an easy win, with the influx of new residents of the north from Turkey — voters who will likely cast their ballots according to Ankara’s wishes.

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