The Cyprus issue is often discussed in terms that feel distant from daily life. We hear about rounds of talks, frameworks, and deadlocks. But any settlement, if it ever comes, will depend on a series of choices. Who governs and how. What happens in territory. How property claims are handled. What kind of security system is put in place. How disputes are judged. How energy is managed. People may support a settlement in principle, but their views can change once these choices are spelled out. That is where the Cyprus Peace Settlement Scenario Toolkit (PCSST) comes in.
PCSST is an online tool that lets users build their own settlement package and then see how it is likely to be received by Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The user selects from a set of options across the main parts of the Cyprus issue. These include political structure, territorial arrangements, compensation for property, security guarantees, judicial arrangements, and energy cooperation. Once these are combined, the tool estimates the level of support the package is likely to receive in each community. It allows the public to test what happens when one idea is combined with another, and to see that some combinations do better than others.
The toolkit was created by academics in 2025 and is based on survey experiments carried out separately among Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. In those surveys, respondents were asked to assess different combinations of settlement provisions. This matters because it moves the discussion away from a simple yes or no question on “the solution”. It looks instead at the parts that make up a settlement. Which choices are easier for people to accept. Which ones lose support. Which mixes seem to leave some room for common ground. That is a more useful way to think about a problem that has often been discussed at the level of slogans.
What makes PCSST worth using is that it gives people the chance to test their own assumptions. Someone may believe that one package looks fair, only to find that it performs badly in one community. Someone else may discover that a different mix does better than expected. The tool opens up the evidence and lets users explore it for themselves. That is useful in a public debate where people often speak with certainty about what “the other side” will never accept. Public opinion is more layered than that. Not every option is viable, but not every path is closed either. PCSST offers a clearer way to think about what a settlement might contain, and what kinds of choices may have a better chance of winning support across the island.
If you use the toolkit, we would be grateful if you could complete a short feedback survey. All responses are anonymous and will help us improve the tool and make it more useful for the public.