Greek Cypriots

The citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will vote in a presidential election on April 19, with an atmosphere of returning to the bargaining table developing on both the Turkish and Greek sides of the divided island. 

A Turkish Cypriot man has turned the U.N.-led Cyprus negotiations into a satirical video game, saying it irked Greek Cypriots for showing Greek Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades ?running from the table.?

A U.N. envoy for the divided island of Cyprus said April 7 he expected stalled peace talks to resume "within weeks," following a six-month suspension in a row over offshore gas reserves.

A United Nations envoy says halted talks on reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus will resume after a clash over the island's potential offshore gas riches has subsided.

Espen Barth Eide told reporters Tuesday that Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu agreed to resume talks after an April 19 Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

Turkish Cypriots say they have halted their own search for gas off the east Mediterranean island's coast in the latest sign that suspended reunification talks could restart soon.
     
Özdil Nami, the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, told The Associated Press March 30 that a Turkish vessel that has been searching for gas the last few months will be sent back to Turkey.

Both the Turkish and Greek Cypriots are considering a halt to exploration activities for hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, in order to restart settlement talks for reunification of Cyprus.

Turkey has entered the election frenzy for the June 7 parliamentary elections, the outcome of which perhaps will shape not only the life of Turks but also the place of Turkey in the global political game.

Both Turkish and Greek Cypriots have banded together to oppose plans to build a nuclear power station on nearby Turkey's southern coast.

The Cyprus Anti-Nuclear Platform brings together dozens of Greek and Turkish Cypriot groups opposed to the planned Akkuyu station some 80 kilometers from the island's northern coastline.

By John O'Donnell & Michele Kambas

Doubts over Greece's future membership of the euro are straining its historic kinship with Cyprus, as Nicosia distances itself from Athens to try to secure its foothold in the currency bloc.

Greek-Cypriot administration leader Nicos Anastasiades said a solution to the Cyprus dispute was possible by bringing the island under a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single internationally-identified federation that was compatible with European legislation.