Confidence Building Measures for the Cyprus dispute

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has accused Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci of having planned to leave the negotiating table beforehand last week, in a bid to avoid being seen as intransigent with regard to Turkey's demand to maintain troops on the island and the right to intervene in the event of a settlement.

A few days after the latest round of Cyprus peace talks stalled, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday that he believed Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci would not return to the negotiating table before a constitutional referendum scheduled to be held in Turkey in April.

Maybe it's a good thing that we have a crisis in the Cyprus talks now and not later. If the negotiations between President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci can withstand today's difficulties, then perhaps the Cyprus issue will be on its way toward resolution.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed regret on Wednesday over the decision of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci not to attend scheduled peace talks on Thursday.

"I am ready to continue the dialogue at any time," Anastasiades wrote on Twitter.

Cyprus reunification talks were in disarray on Wednesday after reports the Turkish Cypriot side would not join this week's meeting because of the commemoration by Greek Cypriots of a plebiscite on union with Greece more than 60 years ago.

Turkey's foreign minister says his country's right to intervene militarily in Cyprus is still necessary given recent actions that have fanned insecurity among Turkish Cypriots.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu cited unspecified "attacks" against Turkish Cypriots as an example of why Turkey needs to keep military intervention rights on the ethnically divided island.

One day after face-to-face talks between leaders of divided Cyprus broke off, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday sought to play down tensions ahead of the next scheduled meeting between the two sides on Thursday.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci's decision to leave the meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Thursday was pre-determined, the Cypriot Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulidis said on Friday.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will meet this coming Thursday in Nicosia to process and assess the results of the meetings held in Switzerland on Wednesday and Thursday of technical teams of the main parties involved in the United Nations-backed efforts to reunify the island.

Nikos Anastasiades asked for a “truce” in the interior of Cyprus, as the negotiations for the resolution of the Cyprus issue are on a critical point.