Cyprus peace process

A deal to unify Cyprus is within reach, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Nov. 7 as he opened a latest round of negotiations.

"The prospect of a solution in Cyprus is within their reach," said Ban as he opened a round of talks in a snow-bound hotel overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland on Nov. 7. 

"Expectations in both communities are high," he added. 

When they started in a Beirut hotel back in 1968, probably neither of the two communal negotiators believed that the exercise they started would carry on for very long. Almost 50 years later, the process launched by the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş and Greek Cypriot negotiator Glafkos Klerides will this week be carried to Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, for what many people see as a final mak

We've been here before. Whether it was Geneva in Switzerland, Troutbeck in New York or Greentree in Pennsylvania, the leaders of Cyprus' rival Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities have often locked horns in foreign resorts to thrash out a deal that would end this tiny, eastern Mediterranean island's decades of ethnic division.

And they have failed.

Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders will meet for intensive negotiations from Nov. 7 at Mont Pelerin, near Lake Geneva, in the presence of the U.N. envoy for Cyprus, Norwegian diplomat Espen Barth Eide, in U.N.-backed peace talks aimed at solving one of the world's longest-running political crises.

Turkey's input will be pivotal in overcoming key obstacles preventing a deal to reunify Cyprus, Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Nov. 4 ahead of crucial talks in Switzerland next week.

Turkey's input will be pivotal in overcoming key obstacles preventing a deal reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus, the island's president said Friday ahead of crucial talks in Switzerland next week.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı called Nov. 2 for "realism and reasonable" approaches from the Greek Cypriots ahead of U.N.-backed talks aimed at reunifying the Mediterranean island.

A deal to find a peaceful solution to the more than 40-year-old conflict on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is closer than ever and could be clinched by the end of this year, a senior U.N. envoy said Nov. 1. 

Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders have agreed to continue their talks next month in Switzerland to reach an agreement on reunification of the island before the end of 2016, the United Nations said Oct. 27 in Geneva.

European Commission sources says the representatives of the institutions have completed their mission in Athens, following constructive talks with the Greek authorities. The same sources added that both sides agreed to conclude the second review of the Greek programme as soon as possible. “The institutions will return in mid-November where talks will continue”, the sources said.