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Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot leaders move to kick off peace talks

Xinhua, April 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities made a first move towards resuming suspended peace talks by meeting for the first time after six months on Saturday.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades announced on Tuesday that he and newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will have an unofficial meeting at a yet undisclosed location.

Akinci won a sweeping electoral victory on Sunday ousting nationalist hardliner Turkish Cypriot community leader Dervis Eroglu.

As both Anastasiades and Akinci come from the southern tourist city of Limassol, it is expected that they will meet in their home town in a social get together.

Anastasiades, attending the reunification negotiations in his capacity as leader of the Greek Cypriot community, said he will present to Akinci "unilateral confidence building measures" ahead of officially resuming peace talks.

The negotiations were suspended last October by Anastasiades, after Turkey reportedly sent warships and a seismographic ship to explore for natural gas in an area claimed by Cyprus under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

A United Nations envoy to Cyprus is to visit the island between May 4 and 8, presumably to make arrangements for the restart of the talks.

Anastasiades said in a statement that he believed a climate of trust should be created which will assist the negotiations.

He announced some confidence building measures including the handover of maps detailing the location of 28 minefields in the region which Turkey occupied in 1974, reacting to a coup by Greek army officers.

Anastasiades also said he will cede the administration of several Turkish Cypriot places of worship all over the area controlled by the government to Evkaf, a religious foundation and trust in charge of Muslim institutions.

Akinci has said that he will work hard to reunify Cyprus in a federal state and has made statements distancing Turkish Cypriots from the influence of Turkey. Endit