No return to 1960s for Turkish Cypriots: UN envoy

The U.N.'s top official on the Cyprus issue has vowed that a final deal to reunite the divided east Mediterranean island will avoid any repeat of the sufferings of Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s, saying a "solid conclusion on governance" will guarantee the security of both Turkish and Greek Cypriots.

The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, was in Ankara for talks with Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlio?lu.

In a Twitter message posted after his meeting with Davuto?lu late on Dec. 8, Eide said he had "a substantive meeting with Davuto?lu on Cyprus and region, security and guarantees."

Taking pains not to directly comment on the wish of Ankara and the Turkish Cypriots to maintain Turkey's guarantor status in any final U.N. led-deal, Eide said "a solid conclusion on governance" would guarantee the security of both the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots.

"Security should not be reduced just to a question of troops and military issues. Security is first and foremost living together in peace in a successful federal construction. Sometimes I feel that the security questions are too narrow. Guarantees or troops are a part of it, but we have to see the complexity of the situation," Eide told the Hürriyet Daily News on Dec. 9, after wrapping up his talks with the Turkish officials. 

"Maybe a solid conclusion on governance that provides for the safety of the Turkish Cypriots, so that that there is no way that the events of the 1960s can happen again, may also be the key to any kind of adaptation of a security regime," he added.

The half-century-old Cyprus problem erupted after the island was granted...