Another last chance in Cyprus

The Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders, along with foreign ministers of the three guarantor states Turkey, Greece and Britain, came together for open-ended discussions on the future of Cyprus in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana on June 28. The five-party talks are a continuation of the attempt that first commenced on Jan. 12 under the auspices of U.N. Secretary General Antonio Gueterres, but failed in its first round. It focuses on reaching convergence on the core issues to reunify the island and to end the years of division.

In the background are the two years of negotiations between Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akıncı, respective presidents of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). This background has so far created a collegial atmosphere between them and their teams, and brought about the most likely environment for solution first time since the failure of the Annan Plan in 2004.

To recap, the Annan Plan, which sought the reunification of the island as well as the exchange of territories and gradual withdrawal of Turkish troops over time, was approved by 65 percent of the Turkish Cypriots through a simultaneous referendum in April 2004 on both sides of the island. It was rejected by 76 percent of Greek Cypriots, and thus failed to be implemented. Since then, the TRNC has faced international isolation while the RoC has enjoyed the benefits of its EU membership. With the election of Mustafa Akıncı as the president of the TRNC in April 2015, both sides felt sufficiently confident to start yet another round of negotiations that ultimately brought us to Crans-Montana. The atmosphere seemed positive enough that the U.N. Secretary General took the initiative to invite all the relevant parties to hammer out the...