Roundup: Cypriot leaders to resume reunification negotiations

The leaders of Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities agreed to resume their stalled negotiations for reunifying the eastern Mediterranean island and drew a roadmap putting off their conclusion from the end of this month to mid-January, the United Nations said on Friday.

A UN statement after a four-hour long dinner hosted by the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said the leaders will meet from Jan. 9 to 11 in Geneva to exchange maps on territorial adjustments.

Their meetings will be followed by a conference on Jan. 12 with the guarantor powers -- Britain, Greece and Turkey -- to agree security arrangements.

A UN statement after a four-hour long dinner hosted by the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said the leaders will meet from Jan. 9 to 11 in Geneva to exchange maps on territorial adjustments.

Their meetings will be followed by a conference on Jan. 12 with the guarantor powers -- Britain, Greece and Turkey -- to agree security arrangements.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci had failed to reach an agreement during negotiations in the Swiss resort of Mont Pelerin two weeks ago on the amount of territory each of the two communities will control in a federal state and the number of displaced people who will return to their homes.

Turkey occupied about 37 percent of the Cypriot territory in 1974, reacting to a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

The negotiations aim at bringing down the territory under Turkish Cypriot control closer to their population ratio, allowing part of the 170,000 Greek Cypriots displaced in 1974 to return to their cities and villages.

A contentious point in the negotiations related to the timing of an agreement for territorial adjustments relative to convening a conference to discuss security arrangements.

The Turkish Cypriot side insisted on a conference of the three guarantor powers and the two Cypriot sides to agree on all outstanding issues, including security and maintaining some kind of guarantees after a solution.

The Greek Cypriot side insisted on convening a wider conference with the participation of the Cyprus Republic and the permanent members of the UN Security Council after all other issues would have been agreed upon. It also opposed any guarantee rights that would give Turkey intervention rights.

On that point, the UN statement said that the two sides will exchange maps on Jan. 11 and "a conference on Cyprus will be convened with the added participation of the guarantor powers. Other relevant parties shall be invited as needed."

Cypriot President Anastasiades said that until the meetings in Geneva the two sides will try to close any gaps still existing on all chapters, so as to reach "a final stage that will lead us either to success or if there is no longer any possibility (for agreement) to a point where each one will know the course to follow."

He expected that there is a great margin to conclude an agreement on the vast majority of issues and complete the talks successfully during the three-day conference in Geneva. Endit