Can the Cyprus talks be revived?

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı was on front pages and TV screens last week with his continuing optimism. He was stressing that he believed it was still possible to resume the Cyprus talks and strike a deal by the end of April or May provided the Greek Cypriot side steps back from a law to mark the anniversary of the 1950 "enosis" (union with Greece) plebiscite. He was confident that if Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades came to the point of publicly acknowledging that it was wrong for the House of Representatives to pass a law on the enosis plebiscite commemoration, he could as well take moves to kill such a move considered by Turkish Cypriots as hostile and incompatible with talks aimed at reaching a federal resolution.

There are reports that Anastasiades' Democratic Rally Party (DISI) has proposed a draft for the authorization of the Education Ministry to decide on the days to mark in schools rather than leaving such issues to the parliament. When the DISI proposal will be handled by the parliamentary committee, when it will reach the plenary are issues that are not known yet. The education committee chairman has reportedly declared that the committee has a very busy agenda. Is there anything more important than contributing to a resolution of the Cyprus problem? Why waste time if by legislating such a law, Anastasiades might grab a face-saving formula of killing the enosis commemoration, while at the same time remain loyal to the "Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston" or the "Ethnic Organization of Cypriot Fighters [EOKA]" terrorist background of the DISI.

From his statements, it has become apparent however that the Greek Cypriot leader does not believe the talks skipped into a deadlock just because of the enosis commemoration law. He...