UN chief meets with Cyprus leaders on stalled talks

Thu, 18 Nov 2010

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with leaders of divided Cyprus on Thursday, trying to break the impasse in talks to end the division on the island inhabited by Greeks and Turks.

The meeting at UN headquarters in New York was seen as a last- ditch effort to prevent a total breakdown of 18 months of negotiations in Nicosia between Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Dervis Eroglu, president of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Alexander Downer, former Australian foreign minister and UN mediator on Cyprus, said both Christofias and Eroglu could directly tell the UN chief their problems with the negotiations and future prospects if any. Failure to revitalize the negotiations could result in a permanent division of Cyprus.

A major sticking point is the issue of properties and compensation. Turks and Greeks lost properties when the island was divided by a ceasefire line running through Nicosia in 1974 after Turkish-held northern Cyprus declared an independent state.

The Turkish population in northern Cyprus is backed by Turkey, which has posted over 30,000 military troops while the south, the Republic of Cyprus with a large population of Greeks, is supported by Athens. The south is also a European Union member while the north is not.

UN-led negotiations had been dealing with a power-sharing federal government, currency, refugees and compensation for lost properties.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/354216,cyprus-leaders-stalled-talks.html.