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UN chief to host Cyprus meeting in April
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Feb 25, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres will convene an informal meeting in April involving
Greece, Turkey and Britain to explore a possible end to deadlocked Cyprus
peace talks, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third
in response to a coup orchestrated by the military junta then in power in
Athens aimed at annexing the island to Greece.
There have been no official UN-sponsored negotiations on the island’s
future since a conference in Switzerland — also involving Greece, Turkey and
Britain — collapsed in 2017.
“The purpose of the meeting will be to determine whether common ground
exists for the parties to negotiate a lasting solution to the Cyprus problem
within a foreseeable horizon,” said the statement from Guterres’ spokesman.
The three countries act as guarantors of the island’s sovereignty under the
treaty that gave Cyprus independence from British rule in 1960.
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar is an advocate of a two-state solution
or recognition for the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC), recognised only by Ankara.
Tatar was elected in October on a hardline platform of seeking the two-
state solution, rather than a bicommunal federation, a stance supported by
Turkey.
The Republic of Cyprus, the only internationally recognized one, is a
member of the European Union and exercises its authority over the southern
part of the Mediterranean island.
Obstacles to the peace process include rising tensions in the eastern
Mediterranean over conflicting claims to offshore oil and gas.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0912 hrs