Military history of Cyprus

The Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides are in intense negotiations to find a permanent settlement on the divided island.

Turkey rebuked Greek Cypriot administration on March 25 over its announcing a tender for new hydrocarbon exploration offshore the long-divided Mediterranean island.

The details of discussions U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had during his Jan. 23 visit to Turkey with President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and other top Turkish executives, as well as his talks with the Israeli and Greek Cypriot leaders, keep emerging.

Turkish Cypriot presidency has expressed its wish that the elections scheduled for May to elect Greek Cypriot administration will not harm the ongoing peace talks between the two sides. 

The four-page document that Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades gave to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a meeting at Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum underlined once again how delusional it might be to expect a quick Cyprus fix.

Ever since I started covering the Cyprus issue in 1990, I have heard two main things from Turkish officials, whom I considered to have the most rational and realistic approaches: 

1 - The parameters of the solution are known to both sides, there's no need to discover America over and over again. What is needed is for the actors to take the bitter pill and go that last extra mile. 

"The visit has achieved the objectives we set at the outset ? To meet the Turkish prime minister and foreign minister, who can take on board the positions of the Greek Cypriot side," said Greek Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) head Andros Kyprianou on his return to the island after visiting Turkey over the weekend.

Turkey has made a diplomatic jumpstart to 2016.

Many people were puzzled when Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavu?o?lu separately met in Istanbul with Andreas Kyprianou, the secretary-general of the Greek Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL). Particularly, the very fact that the meeting came immediately after a landmark trilateral meeting of the two Cypriot leaders with the U.N.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has commended the two heads of the island of Cyprus for their "efforts and leadership" in peace talks on the divided island, adding that significant progress had been made in the negotiations.