Turkish and Greek Cypriot negotiators will hold their first formal talks in Athens and Ankara next week, in a watershed moment for the Cyprus dispute.
Turkey’s foreign ministry building in Ankara, where the meeting will take place
The simultaneous meetings on Thursday 27 February will mark the first direct contact in decades between Greek Cypriots and Turkey, and between Turkish Cypriots and Greece.
Feridun Sinirlioğlu, one of the most senior officials at the Turkish foreign ministry, will meet Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis in Ankara.
At the same time, a meeting will take place in Athens between Turkish Cypriot negotiator Kudret Özersay and Anastasis Mitsialis, secretary-general at Greece’s foreign ministry.
PEACE TALKS RESUMED
The meetings are the next concrete step in the peace talks, which began last week after a break of almost two years.
The two Cypriot leaders, Derviş Eroğlu and Nicos Anastasiades, met in the United Nations neutral zone, where they said the status quo of a divided island was “unacceptable and its prolongation will have negative consequences for the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots”.
They said they aimed to reach a settlement “as soon as possible” – possibly by the summer.
Greece, Turkey and the United States have all been pushing for a speedy resolution, inspired in no small part by the recent discovery of oil and gas reserves in the Mediterranean Sea off Cyprus.
TALAT’S SUPPORT
Last week former Turkish Cypriot president Mehmet Ali Talat told Londra Gazete he had been surprised by the United States’s vocal support for the new peace talks
He said that while the latest effort needed to be supported, there was a difficult process facing the negotiating teams.
“The talks have been on hold for two years because of economic and political developments on the Greek side,” he said.
“Western nations do not want the tension that would emerge if Turkish Cypriots are excluded from the natural gas fields that were found [off the coast of Cyprus] last year. They also believe the peace process will be an important motivation in helping the Greeks emerge from their economic crisis.