Politics of Cyprus

The two leaders on either side of Cyprus are set to meet United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sept. 25 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, as part of efforts to solve the decades-long conflict on the divided Mediterranean island. 

Will there finally be a Cyprus settlement? Can the two communal leaders of the divided eastern Mediterranean island manage to come forward before the end of the year with a deal mutually acceptable for the two people sharing Cyprus as their common homeland?

If there is no rotating presidency between the two founding states of a perspective Cypriot federal state, for which accelerated negotiations are being conducted, there will be no peace deal, the leader of the Turkish Cypriots on the eastern Mediterranean island has said. 

The Turkish Cypriot administration has opposed a proposal by the Greek Cypriots for the deployment of some 2,500 police officers from the European Union to operate in the divided eastern Mediterranean island instead of a guarantorship system, as part of the recently-accelerated peace negotiations. 

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. 

Social media is a great platform. Would it be possible just a few years ago to see a Greek Cypriot leader lamenting to opposition parties accusing him of rendering his people some sort of a minority by accepting the principle of political equality and agreeing to share key posts with Turkish Cypriots in some organs of the future Cypriot federation?

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.

The problem in Cyprus is not finding a resolution to the over 50-year-old power sharing quagmire between the two peoples of the island but to pretend as if a solution is wanted by a certain date. Is this an overstatement? Probably.

Amidst the ongoing peace negotiations to finally find an equitable and a fair solution to the age-old Cyprus problem, Turkish Cyprus has been facing a governmental crisis in recent months. The National Unity Party (UBP), the smaller partner in the coalition government, withdrew from the coalition led by the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) on April 2.

A new but old page was opened in northern Cyprus during the weekend with National Unity Party (UBP) leader Hüseyin Özgürgün declaring that he has forged a coalition government with the Democratic Party-National Forces (DP-UG) with the support of four independent deputies.