Cyprus

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı and Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades met as a part of the Cyprus peace talks on Feb. 9, as Turkey prepares to host the new U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his special envoy on Cyprus on Feb. 10.

British travel group Thomas Cook said on Feb. 9 that demand for holidays in Egypt is picking up again, after unrest in the North African nation had pushed holidaymakers into choosing rival sun spots.

The Finance Ministry is attempting to make the country's tax borders less porous for Greeks through a legislative intervention and the exchange of information with cooperating states, in a bid to put an end to the phenomenon of enterprises and professionals establishing themselves as residents of countries with lower tax rates, as well as to put pressure on businesses that have already shifted

The results of the "Turkish Policy Elites' Perception on Turkish Foreign Policy and Greek-Turkish Relations" study conducted by the Center for International and European Studies (CIES) at Kadir Has University were recently released. The survey was conducted by CIES director Dimitrios Triantaphyllou with the assistance of International Relations PhD candidate Cihan Dizdaroğlu.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are to resume talks on Thursday as part of the latest United Nations-buffered initiative aimed at reaching a settlement on the divided island.

Talks between the two leaders are set to continue until late March when another multi-party summit is expected to be held in Geneva.

Up to 700 migrants could arrive on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus next week on smuggling trips from Turkey, a top Cypriot official said Saturday, hours after 93 migrants landed in the dark on the island’s northwestern shore.

The talks between the Greek and Turkish sides in Cyprus have come to such a stage that it is time for the United Nations to resume shuttle diplomacy, according to Mustafa Akıncı, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

There is no link between the referendum process in Turkey and the peace talks for Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı has said. 

"The Turkish government has told us that there is no relationship between the constitutional referendum process and the peace talks," Akıncı told the Hürriyet Daily News on Feb. 6.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı wrote a letter to Republican Assembly Spokesperson Sibel Siber, answering some of the questions the head of the legislature wrote to the president in early January.

United Nations special envoy for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide was in Ankara on Feb. 7 to hold talks with Turkish officials over the ongoing peace talks to bring a lasting solution to the eastern Mediterranean island. 

Eide first held talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Feb. 7. He was later scheduled to meet Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.