Cyprus peace talks resume after two-month gap

NICOSIA

The two Cypriot leaders on April 11 rebooted stalled U.N.-backed reunification talks for the island and agreed to pick up lost momentum after a two-month suspension.

The leaders agreed to schedule four new meetings, in a new phase of talks, with the first beginning on April 20.
“I hope this new round of negotiations will take us to a point where we can say there are convergences that lead us to a Cyprus solution,” Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades told reporters after the April 11 three-hour session with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akıncı, according to AFP.

“I welcome the resumption of dialogue during which there was a fruitful exchange of views.” 

He said there was no time frame for a when a settlement should be reached but any solution could not “ignore the fears” of either community.

Anastasiades and Akıncı resumed the talks in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone that divides the island, under the guidance of U.N. envoy Espen Barth Eide.

U.N.-facilitated Cyprus talks came to a standstill in February in a row over the Greek Cypriot Parliament’s decision to marking the anniversary of the 1950 “Enosis” referendum in support of union with Greece in schools.

After a majority of Greek Cypriot lawmakers amended the legislation on April 7, the peace talks were scheduled to resume.

But during the hiatus the climate of trust between the sides has deteriorated, with each side blaming the other over the stalled process.