Mustafa Ak

The historic Denya Mosque in Greek Cyprus has been attacked by arsonists and completely destroyed, while the two leaders on the divided island have condemned the attack.

Unknown assailants staged an arson attack on an historic mosque located in the Denya area inside the territories of the Greek Cypriot administration. 

Elizabeth Spehar will replace Lisa Buttenheim as the special representative and head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) to conduct the ongoing peace talks between the two communities of the split island. 

A planned meeting part of the U.N.-brokered peace talks to find a solution to the Cyprus issue has been postponed due to illness of the Turkish Cypriot leader. 

The meeting, scheduled to take place in Nicosia on Feb. 8, was postponed to a later date due to Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Ak?nc?'s illness caused by bronchitis, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Turkish Cypriot presidency has expressed its wish that the elections scheduled for May to elect Greek Cypriot administration will not harm the ongoing peace talks between the two sides. 

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. 

Greek Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades has warned U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that time is needed to negotiate a deal reunifying the ethnically-split island without "deficiencies, gaps and ambiguities" that may lead Greek and Turkish Cypriots to reject it in referendums. 

Turkey has made a diplomatic jumpstart to 2016.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has commended the two heads of the island of Cyprus for their "efforts and leadership" in peace talks on the divided island, adding that significant progress had been made in the negotiations. 

Who managed to convince the Greek Cypriot leadership to drop its intransigence and agree to meet with the Turkish Cypriot leader in the presence of the U.N. secretary-general? Was it the Americans, or the British, or combined brinkmanship?

The two leaders of divided Cyprus said on Jan. 21 that a deal was possible this year to end decades of conflict over the island, calling on the international community to support peace efforts during their joint address to business leaders in Davos.