Cyprus–United Kingdom relations

United Nations Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide on Monday returned to Cyprus, where President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are due to meet Wednesday, after being briefed about Greece?s positions on the reunification talks.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is due to meet in Athens at noon on Monday with the UN Secretary General?s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide.

The meeting comes three days after Kotzias met his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides, also in Athens.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Turkish Cypriot President-elect Mustafa Ak?nc? for his victory in last week?s elections on April 30.

?[Kerry] wished him well as he assumes his role as leader of the Turkish Cypriot community,? U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said during a daily briefing on April 30. 

It is difficult to grow up on an island. It is even more difficult if that island is a bi-communal one and you belong to the numerically smaller community. Well, I would not say "minority," as we Turkish Cypriots hate that word. Nowhere else in the world, perhaps, does a father or mother celebrate when, for the first time, their kid "rebels" and serves a "nice kick" to either of them.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides signed a memorandum on naval cooperation Wednesday.

Cyprus thus agreed to allow Russian anti-terrorism vessels to call at its ports, TASS information agency announced.

Presidents of both countries were also present at the ceremony.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has proposed a yet-to-be-founded private company continues oil and gas drilling activities in the Mediterranean until a resolution can be found for the decades-long Cyprus issue.

Deputy Greek Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos will pay a visit to Turkey in late November amid Cyprus talks that have stalled over a dispute over the island’s natural resources.

The governments of Egypt, Greece and Greek Cyprus have urged Turkey to stop trying to chart gas deposits in areas of the east Mediterranean claimed by Greek Cyprus, saying the work was illegal.

Greek Cyprus, a European Union member, is anxious to develop the gas reserves in its so-called exclusive economic zone (EEZ), an offshore region lying south of the island.

Amid the burning problems of Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and others, surrounding Turkey, not many people noticed that this year marked the 40th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation of July 20, 1974. Once described as the “national issue” in Turkey, it no longer occupies the center stage in public discussions.