Cyprus peace process

A peace deal can be reached on Cyprus within 90 days if both sides of the divided Mediterranean island are willing and decisive about the issue, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı has said.

A peace deal can be reached on Cyprus within 90 days if both sides of the divided Mediterranean island are willing and decisive about the issue, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı has said.

The leaders of the Turkish and Greek sides of Cyprus are committed to reaching a peace deal before the year ends, but gaps on controversial issues remain, a United Nations special envoy has said. 

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met in Nicosia's United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on Thursday in a symbolic show of good will after the two sides agreed to relaunch stalled peace talks aimed at reunifying the divided island.

The talks are to start again on June 8, the two leaders agreed.

If 2016 is to be the year of a solution, the ongoing United Nations-brokered Cyprus peace talks need to be faster and more productive, the President of Turkish Cyprus Mustafa Ak?nc? said April 25.

The European Parliament has advised making Turkish an official language of the European Union, building on the initiative by Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, according to the EP's 2015 progress report on Turkey. 

Solving the dispute on the "little" divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus would also bring peace and prosperity to the crisis-riddled region, said Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Ak?nc?.

The left-right grand coalition government in northern Cyprus has collapsed due to its failure to deliver on exactly what it promised to do in the first place: undertake long-overdue reforms and achieve the restructuring of the Turkish Cypriot public administration. Was it a big surprise? Unfortunately, no.

The European Union will not be whole until all of Cyprus, the Turkish and Greek administrations together, becomes a part of the bloc, said European Parliament President Martin Schulz during a visit to the Mediterranean island. 

Turkey and the United States agreed March 28 that a political settlement may be possible this year in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island that has been divided for four decades.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, and both diplomats were upbeat about chances for a deal.