Cyprus peace talks fail to produce solution

MONT PELERIN, Switzerland

AP photo

“Despite their best efforts, they have not been able to achieve the necessary further convergences on criteria for territorial adjustment that would have paved the way for the last phase of the talks,” said a statement issued by the U.N. spokesperson in Cyprus. 

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Nicos Anastasiades, had been engaged in intensified talks in Switzerland’s Mont Pelerin for a second time in under two weeks but the negotiations failed to produce a result. 

The island was divided between a Greek south and a Turkish north when the Turkish military intervened in 1974 under the terms of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee in response to an Athens-backed coup aiming to unite the island with Greece.

“The two sides have decided to return to Cyprus and reflect on the way forward,” the statement read. 
“The Special Adviser of the Secretary-General (SASG), Mr. Espen Barth Eide, will bring these developments to the attention of the Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon],” it added.

The first round of the intensified talks in a hotel near Lake Geneva was held from Nov. 7 to 11 and ended with a U.N. statement saying that “significant progress” had been achieved during the one-week talks.
Following a request from Anastasiades, a second round of intensified talks was held on Nov. 20-21. 

The latest peace efforts to solve the four-decade-old conflict were launched in May 2015 after Akıncı’s election as the Turkish Cypriot community’s new leader.