Cyprus peace talks postponed due to Turkish Cypriot leader’s illness: Reports

NICOSIA

REUTERS photo

A planned meeting part of the U.N.-brokered peace talks to find a solution to the Cyprus issue has been postponed due to illness of the Turkish Cypriot leader. 

The meeting, scheduled to take place in Nicosia on Feb. 8, was postponed to a later date due to Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı’s illness caused by bronchitis, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Akıncı was reported to be resting at home due to the illness.

The stalled meetings to reach a peace deal were restarted last May between Akıncı and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades under the guidance of the United Nations after Akıncı was elected as the new president of the Turkish Cypriot administration a month before.

Since then, Akıncı and Anastasiades meet several times a month together with U.N. Special Envoy on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide to negotiate the terms of a possible accord. The latest meeting took place on Jan. 28 in Nicosia. 

Previously, Anastasiades had warned U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that time was needed to negotiate a deal reunifying the split island without “deficiencies, gaps and ambiguities” that may lead Greek and Turkish Cypriots to reject it in referendums, as reported by the Associated Press. Anastasiades said progress has been made on “an important number” of issues, adding that differences remained in “all chapters” and raising expectations that a deal is “within immediate reach” should be avoided.

“I believe that - despite our wish for the opposite - we should not present a picture that does not reflect the reality,” Anastasiades said in a document obtained by the Associated Press on Feb. 1 from an official who provided it on condition of anonymity.

Anastasiades made the appeal to the U.N. chief during a meeting with Akıncı last month in Davos, Switzerland, after a recent flurry of remarks by foreign officials suggesting that a deal was in sight.