Foreign relations of Cyprus

Turkey has slammed a report by the U.N. Security Council on the extension of a peace force in Cyprus, saying the appointment of a new special advisor does not mean "any restart of the negotiation process," which ended in 2017.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warns that Turkish Cypriots will not shrug off yet another failure in the Cyprus talks nor will they accept anything less than political equality.

Cavusoglu, who visited north Nicosia on Monday evening, held a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has written a book on the recent Cyprus peace talks, in which he criticises UN envoy Espen Barth Eide and shares details and documents unseen by the public.

Kotzias, a former career chief diplomat, played a pivotal role in the latest round of Cyprus talks that ended up in failure last summer.

More allegations are piling up in an ongoing case in the UK against British forces, who are accused of torture and even rape during the Greek Cypriot insurgency between 1955 and 1959.

An elderly Cypriot woman, who was suspected of being an EOKA member when she was 15, says she was arrested in her home in 1956 and later tortured in the hands of British interrogators.

Turkey has reportedly approved the appointment of Jane Holl Lute as the United Nations' new special adviser in the Cyprus reunification talks, the Cyprus News Agency has reported.

Barring unforeseen circumstances will be assuming her new post next week after being formally appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the CNA said.

The director-general of the United Nations office in Geneva, Michael Moller, insists that there there is a "good foundation" for talks to move forward to reunify the ethnically-divided island of Cyprus.

Greek Cypriots started work on June 8 on building what has been billed as the largest casino resort in Europe costing 550 million euros ($650 million) and creating thousands of jobs on the south of the holiday island.    

Cyprus Defense Minister Savas Angelides is heading to Israel on his first official visit, where he will meet with his counterpart to discuss military training cooperation between the two countries.

Negotiations for a solution of the Cyprus problem will not resume before the Turkish elections, which are scheduled for June 24, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias has said.

Kotzias was speaking after a meeting in New York with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, which focused on the Cyprus issue and negotiations between Greece and Skopje regarding the name dispute.

Turkey believes that "it is time to try a new way" to resolve the decades-long Cyprus division, the country's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Thursday, commenting on the prospects of a resumption of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations.