Confidence Building Measures for the Cyprus dispute

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met in Nicosia's United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on Thursday in a symbolic show of good will after the two sides agreed to relaunch stalled peace talks aimed at reunifying the divided island.

The talks are to start again on June 8, the two leaders agreed.

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. 

Fresh water has not been pumped through a new pipeline to households in Turkish Cyprus, amid a continuing dispute between Turkey and Turkish Cyprus over who will run the water affairs of the newly-built pipeline, Turkish Cypriot sources told daily Hürriyet.

In an unprecedented move, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades stood side by side on television on Thursday to issue the first-ever joint Christmas greeting with Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. This move is a positive step in mediation for the ethnically divided nation.

A performance of an ancient tragedy was staged at the ancient theater of Salamina, in occupied northern Cyprus, for the first time in 41 years on Friday evening.

The United Nations senior official on Cyprus has expressed he was more ?optimistic and hopeful? for ongoing talks between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders compared to previous negotiations between the two parties. 

The rival leaders of Cyprus attended a theatrical play on June 8 that implores the island's Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities to confront the wrongs of a tortured history to drive home their shared commitment for a reunification deal.

The rival leaders of Cyprus attended a theatrical play on Monday that implores the divided island's Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities to confront the wrongs of a tortured history to drive home their shared commitment for a reunification deal.

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Ak?nc? left June 2 for New York City at the invitation of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for their first meeting since April's presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

"The negotiation process has started intensively," said Ak?nc? to the press at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport before departing for New York City.

Leaders of rival communities in ethnically-split Cyprus shared coffee and cake on Saturday in a symbolic gesture underscoring a thaw in relations over a conflict spanning decades.