UN dinner aims to relaunch Cyprus peace talks

Rival Cypriot leaders are to meet for dinner in a UN-controlled buffer zone in an effort to relaunch stalled talks on reunifying the island, the United Nations said Monday.

UN envoy Espen Barth Eide “will host a dinner for the Greek Cypriot leader, Mr Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Mustafa Akinci, on Sunday, 2 April”, the UN said in a statement.

Anastasiades and Akinci have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers saw as the best chance in years to reunify the island.

But the UN-backed process came to a standstill in February in a row over Greek Cypriot schools marking the anniversary of an unofficial 1950 referendum supporting union with Greece.

Akinci suspended his participation over the Cyprus parliament’s approval of a move for Greek Cypriot schools to commemorate the poll.

Since the bill passed, a climate of trust between the sides has deteriorated, with each blaming the other over the impasse.

But this week MPs are expected to amend the bill, allowing the education minister to decide on such issues rather than parliament.

Much of the progress in recent talks was based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking Enosis.

After a failed referendum on a UN peace plan in 2004, the Cyprus Republic now headed by President Anastasiades joined the European Union as a divided country.

The self-declared republic in the Turkish-held north is recognised only by Turkey.

© Agence France-Presse

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