Cyprus peace process

Turkey and the United States agreed March 28 that a political settlement may be possible this year in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island that has been divided for four decades.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, and both diplomats were upbeat about chances for a deal.

The Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides are in intense negotiations to find a permanent settlement on the divided island.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz will pay a visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, during which he will also come together with Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Ak?nc?. 

Schulz will visit Ak?nc? in Nicosia in the afternoon of March 29, a written statement issued by the Turkish Cypriot presidency stated on March 24.

The "capriciousness" of the Greek Cypriot administration should not be allowed to block the EU-Turkey deal reached last week in order to curb the migrant influx into the EU, a Turkish minister said on March 16. 

Territorial land settlement issues, among them the status of the town of Morphou, were currently not on the negotiating table at the United Nations-brokered peace talks for Cyprus, a U.N. envoy has said. 

U.N. special envoy for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said March 10 after a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Ak?nc? that the issue of Morphou was not yet on the table.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Ak?nc? lashed out at European Union Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis for his plans to pay a courtesy visit of just 15 minutes when he comes to the island in the coming days.

Speaking at a local SME summit on March 2, Ak?nc? said they would not prefer a visit from Dombrovskis at all if it is only going to be a courtesy visit of 15 minutes. 

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. 

A process of intentional deception is underway. Everyone is indeed pretty aware that there is no Cyprus deal in the pipeline as long as Greek Cypriots maintain their "all mine and only mine" obsession, but there is still talk about a resolution in March, April, May or at the latest by the end of the year.