All we need is money in the Cyprus love song

Ever since I started covering the Cyprus issue in 1990, I have heard two main things from Turkish officials, whom I considered to have the most rational and realistic approaches: 

1 - The parameters of the solution are known to both sides, there's no need to discover America over and over again. What is needed is for the actors to take the bitter pill and go that last extra mile. 

2 - The key is the property issue. Once that is solved, the others are (relatively) much easier.

Some 26 years have passed since I wrote my first article on Cyprus and I have never come across a better environment for peace talks than today. Not surprisingly, the two points I mentioned above stand as key factors to a final agreement.

A lot of headway has been made in the negotiations, which started last May following the election of Mustafa Ak?nc? as president of Turkish Cyprus. I am sure the personal chemistry between Ak?nc? and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Nikos Anastasiades, has helped the progress registered in issues such as how to share power and the nature of legislative and judicial institutions, as well as the political equality of the two communities.

There seems to be limited convergence on the thorny issue of guarantees (that is, Turkey's guarantor status) and a rotating presidency, as well as territory (how much of the land under Turkish control would be returned to the Greek Cypriot side). An agreement on these three issues will take that special extra effort on the part of the political leaders on the island, as well as other stakeholders.

If the property issue was solved, there is a fair amount of confidence among those on the Turkish and the Turkish Cypriot side that the issues left to the very end of the negotiation...