Cyprus talks

The leaders of Cyprus's estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities will meet over dinner next Sunday in a first encounter of the two since peace talks were abruptly interrupted in February, the United Nations said on Monday.

A few days after the latest round of Cyprus peace talks stalled, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday that he believed Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci would not return to the negotiating table before a constitutional referendum scheduled to be held in Turkey in April.

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı has refused to attend a scheduled leaders' meeting on Feb. 23 on the grounds that Greek Cyprus has done nothing to repeal a recent law to permit schools to mark a vote to unify the island with Greece.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed regret on Wednesday over the decision of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci not to attend scheduled peace talks on Thursday.

"I am ready to continue the dialogue at any time," Anastasiades wrote on Twitter.

Turkey's foreign minister says his country's right to intervene militarily in Cyprus is still necessary given recent actions that have fanned insecurity among Turkish Cypriots.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu cited unspecified "attacks" against Turkish Cypriots as an example of why Turkey needs to keep military intervention rights on the ethnically divided island.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci's decision to leave the meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Thursday was pre-determined, the Cypriot Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulidis said on Friday.

A United Nations envoy says progress has been made on a compromise formula regarding how security will be enforced after ethnically divided Cyprus is reunified.

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 President Mustafa Akıncı expressed hope over the ongoing Cyprus peace talks on Jan. 26, also making a call to all parties in the process to put extra effort into solving the conflict. 

Years of experience has taught us that every new proposal to resolve the division of Cyprus is worse than the last. However, the fact that the current peace process is continuing on the level of technical teams shows there is a desire for a viable solution both on the side of the Cypriot government and from the Turkish Cypriots.