January vital month for Cyprus peace talks, says Turkish Cypriot president

The first month of 2017 will be vital for the Cyprus peace talks with negotiations set to resume in Geneva following a failure last month, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı has said.
"The month of January is extremely vital for the future of Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot nation and especially for the future of Cyprus' young generations," Akıncı said Dec. 6 after a meeting with European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels. 

"I believe that we, with the Turkish Cypriots' political structure, will exert the effort to bring this 50-year-old problem to a happy ending, in cooperation with Turkey and in close consultation and dialogue, just like we have done up until today," he said. 

The United Nations said on Dec. 2 that Akıncı and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Nicos Anastasiades, agreed on Dec. 1 to immediately resume reunification talks set to start on Jan. 12, 2017, with the five-party summit that Turkish Cyprus has long been waiting for. 

According to the U.N. statement, teams of negotiators from both sides will accelerate meetings in Cyprus ahead of a meeting between the two sides in Geneva on Jan. 9, 2017, to reach a comprehensive settlement as soon as possible. 

On Jan. 11, 2017, the two sides are expected to present their respective maps, which will be followed a day later with the quintet conference in Geneva, with the added participation of the guarantor powers, Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom. 

Akıncı said he told Schulz that equality, freedom and security were indispensable for a solution that Turkish Cypriots would agree on, and that they did not want these values only for the sake of his own community, but also for the benefit of the Greek Cypriot community. 

Akıncı stressed...