Europe

Europe

Progress made in Cyprus reunification talks but not enough to lock deal: UN

22 October 2011 02:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Greek and Turkish community leaders in Cyprus have achieved some progress in their three-year reunification talks, though not enough to lock an agreement, a UN official in Cyprus said on Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"There has been progress in several of the core issues ... but there are still difficulties to be resolved," UN Secretary General’s special advisor on Cyprus Alexander Downer told reporters after the community leaders wrapped up a series of intensified negotiating sessions.

Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu are scheduled to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Oct. 30, to try to seal a deal to end the division of the eastern Mediterranean island within the next six months.

Cyprus was divided into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south, when Turkey invaded the island in 1974 following a short-lived coup by Greek army officers.

Downer said that there is still some way to go before a solution can be found and that the UN Secretary General would try to explore with the two community leaders how they can resolve their remaining differences.

"It is going to be an important meeting and the Secretary General wants to be hopeful," Downer said.

However, President Christofias has repeatedly complained that nationalist Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu has back-stepped on several issues agreed upon with his moderate predecessor.

Eroglu’s hard-line tactics is being supported by the Turkish government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is the only country to recognize the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus.

The Cyprus issue has compounded difficulties in Anakra’s drive to become a European Union member. Several of its negotiating chapters have been blocked either by Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, or other members states.

A recent European Commission report said there has not been any progress in Turkey’s accession talks over the last year, and the EU called on Ankara to revise its stand towards Cyprus.

According to earlier reports, Erdogan had warned that Turkey’s relations with the EU will be frozen if Cyprus assumes the bloc’s rotating presidency next July without a solution to the Cyprus issue.