Cyprus–Greece relations

Between two checkpoints in Europe's last divided capital, a coffee shop provides a venue for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to overcome their differences and dream of a shared future.

To sip coffee at Home for Cooperation, visitors must first show their identity papers to border police to enter the UN-patrolled buffer zone that runs across Nicosia and the rest of the island. 

No one expects that solving the Cyprus issue will be easy. No one besides the Cypriots themselves has a right to set terms for and possible obstacles in the way of a solution. No one expects that problems which existed for decades, and mentalities forged in fire and war, which dominate memories on both sides, will disappear.

"Turkey holds key at last-ditch Cyprus talks," was the headline of an analysis published in the EUObserver a few days before the intercommunal talks started in Geneva on Jan. 9.

From this headline you would assume that the Geneva talks are not negotiations or a give-and-take exercise between the two communities on the divided island, but it was an effort aimed at convincing Turkey.

Leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus were to discuss territorial trade-offs on Wednesday, a crucial juncture in peace talks aiming for a long-elusive reunification deal that may be put to a referendum this year.

Will it be possible for the Turkish Cypriot president to produce a map showing his territorial offers for a settlement on Cyprus while not even an inch of progress has been achieved on replacing the "red" section regarding power sharing with a "black" one? If he does walk such a road, will it be possible for him to return to northern Cyprus still claiming that compromises were made but that the

Turkey will seek the right of free movement for Turkish people and Turkish goods in Turkish Cyprus after a prospective reunification deal that would result in the entire island joining the European Union amid ongoing talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in Geneva. 

The new Cyprus rendezvous in Geneva is in a few days and the sides are undertaking their last preparations for what is claimed to be a make-or-break session.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will visit New York on Jan. 5 to meet with Antonio Guterres, who assumed his duties as the United Nations Secretary General on Jan. 1.

Çavuşoğlu's visit to the U.N. comes ahead of the upcoming Cyprus talks in Geneva.

In a village in northern Cyprus, a community struggling to save its ancient language has seen a glimmer of hope in intensified efforts to reunify the divided island.

Since Mustafa Akıncı became president of Turkish Cyprus, and efforts to find a federal resolution to the Cyprus problem picked up momentum, each time the ship of talks hit the rocks, the Greek Cypriots managed to get something extra to refloat the vessel.