The heads of the divided Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus are due to resume the ‘United Nations-brokered’ peace talks, that were broken off the previous year.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are in the talks to re-launch the ‘peace process’ later in the capital city of Nicosia’s neutral zone. Friday’s talks were announced after a long UN-mediated meeting that was held on Monday.
Akinci was elected last month. The Turkish-controlled north broke away in the year 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup.
Truce agreements and other negotiations had been stalled since the last October, when the Greek Cypriots had apparently ‘walked out’ in protest, at the presence of a Turkish ship that had been prospecting for natural gas, off the island’s southern coast.
UN envoy Espen Barth Eide, a former Norwegian defence minister, has termed the initiative “a unique opportunity, an opportunity that will be grasped”. The UN centre has announced progress on Monday after the talks at Nicosia’s Ledra Palace Hotel.
UN peacekeeping and other associate forces estimate that around 165,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were forcibly expelled from the northern areas, and around 45,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south, though the parties responsible for the conflict state that the figures are much higher. Compensation for those displaced by the conflict continues to remain as one of the ‘thorniest issues’ in the talks.
The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is diplomatically isolated and is only recognised by the nation of Turkey.
Tags: Cyprus Cyprus talk
