Cyprus peace process

Turkish Cypriots say they have halted their own search for gas off the east Mediterranean island's coast in the latest sign that suspended reunification talks could restart soon.
     
Özdil Nami, the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, told The Associated Press March 30 that a Turkish vessel that has been searching for gas the last few months will be sent back to Turkey.

Both the Turkish and Greek Cypriots are considering a halt to exploration activities for hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, in order to restart settlement talks for reunification of Cyprus.

A UN envoy says he sees an opportunity to resume suspended talks to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus amid signs that a clash over an offshore natural gas search may be ebbing.

Last weekend I was at a rather interesting Cyprus seminar. The meeting itself was a very important one as the Strategic Research Institute (USAK), in cooperation with the Cyprus Academic Dialogue brought together Turkish, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot academics, journalists, and of course some senior politicians in Ankara.

There appears to be a consensus both in northern and southern Cyprus, as well as among the international power brokers, that Cyprus talks might resume at the earliest in May, after the Turkish Cypriot presidential elections.

Forty years after Cyprus was divided by a bloody conflict, the island's Greek and Turkish communities are trying to overcome their differences and find an unusual common cause: halloumi cheese.
 
Efforts to have the increasingly popular "squeaky" cheese granted a protected European Union status have raised fears that Turkish Cypriot producers will be excluded.
 

Greek-Cypriot administration leader Nicos Anastasiades said a solution to the Cyprus dispute was possible by bringing the island under a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single internationally-identified federation that was compatible with European legislation.

What changes can Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras bring to Greece and Greek-Turkish relations?

What might his contribution be to reviving the Cyprus talks abandoned by Greek Cypriots?

It has always been ?too little too late? when it comes to relations between Turkey and the European Union. In the 1990s Turkey?s reform efforts came in such bits and pieces that it took a long time for the EU to grant it candidate status and agree to start accession negotiations.

A United Nations envoy has said deadlocked talks to reunify the ethnically split Cyprus are ?moving in the wrong direction,? during a visit to the Turkish side of the island by Turkey?s foreign minister.