Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders will get back to the negotiating table in Geneva this month after a U.N.-brokered deal aimed at bridging a dispute related to reunification talks was reached Sunday.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced the agreement to restart talks in Switzerland after a four-hour dinner with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akıncı in New York.
A key sticking point has been over the format for the talks with the two sides at odds over what to cover. The Turkish Cypriot side wants everything to be included, while the Greek Cypriots want to agree on security issues first.
The most controversial subject in talks is over powers granted to Greece, Turkey and the U.K. to guarantee Cyprusâ security and territorial integrity, with Anastasiades preferring to deal with this first. Akıncı fears this would weaken the Turkish Cypriot side’s negotiating position later in the talks.
A date has not been set for the next round of talks with consultations with the U.K., Greece and Turkey needing to take place first. They will also need to sign off on any deal.
Cyprus has been a divided territory since 1974 but in January Anastasiades and Akıncı held the first-ever international conference on Cyprus at U.N. headquarters in Geneva. The summit ended without agreement and talks have stalled since then with each side blaming the other for the impasse.