Geneva: Rival Cypriot leaders returned to the negotiating table yesterday to press on with an ambitious bid to end decades of conflict, with talks centred on the island’s future system of government.
As he arrived at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva for a second day of talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said the negotiations had so far been “constructive”.
He said the talks were being conducted in a “peaceful” climate, and that the sides were “working intensely in the hope that we can manage to achieve positive results.”
But he acknowledged that “we have not yet reached” agreement on sufficient issues to seal a deal.
Yesterday, the two leaders were pouring over the issue of how a reunited Cyprus should be governed.
“You can understand that we have difficult and sensitive issues. There is a will from both sides to have progress to reach agreements or understanding,” Cyprus government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides was quoted as saying by the Cyprus Weekly Newspaper.
Cyprus has been divided since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece.
This is the third time the Cypriot leaders have met in Switzerland since November, but two previous rounds were inconclusive. And the two sides are still facing a range of thorny issues that have blocked progress for decades, including how to redraw boundaries and ensure security on the island.
The three days of talks are set to wrap up today with the parties presenting maps of their proposals for the internal boundaries of a future bi-zonal federation on the eastern Mediterranean island.
If that goes to plan, they will be joined from tomorrow for an international conference chaired by UN’s new Secretary General Antonio Guterres and attended by representatives of island’s three guarantor powers—former colonial ruler Britain, Greece and Turkey.
UN envoy for divided island Espen Barth Eide told reporters in Geneva he wanted to see the powers represented “at the highest or second highest level.”
But according to Cypriot media, the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is highly uncertain if they see no significant progress in the talks between the two Cypriot leaders.
London meanwhile said that British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, not Prime Minister Theresa May, is due to attend.
