Current talks on reuniting the divided island of Cyprus are a “last opportunity” and five-party negotiations that include Turkey, Greece and the United Nations should start swiftly, Ankara’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
Mevlut Cavusoglu made the comment at a joint news conference with his Chinese counterpart in Ankara.
Talks this month on reuniting Cyprus have achieved significant progress and will resume on November 20, the United Nations has said
The two Cypriot leaders are very close to reaching a deal on territory, Politis reported on Sunday, citing sources.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have just returned from five days of intensive talks on territory in Switzerland and will return to Geneva next Sunday for three to four more days of discussions. Anastasiades had asked for the recess.
According to Politis the two sides were now only a short distance from a final agreement on one of the most crucial aspects of the negotiations and if they could continue in the same vein, they were likely to succeed next week. After that they are expected to announce a date for the five-party meeting on guarantees.
There were, the paper said, understandings on the three main criteria; percentage of territory, the number of refugees who could return, and the length of coastline for both constituent states.
Politis said maps for the two states had not been on the table at any stage but convergences were reached and recorded. It said if a deal on the maps was not reached next week, it could wreck the entire negotiations.
It also said that during discussions Akinci started with 32 per cent of territory for the Turkish Cypriot constituent state but that this was his ‘starting point’ and that it might end lower. Turkey currently controls 37 per cent of the island.
The efforts of both leaders are focused on finding a solution that would convince both communities say yes in a possible referendum.
The Turkish foreign ministry said earlier on Sunday it expected the Cyprus negotiations to continue and be concluded in Geneva so that a date could be set for the five-party conference.
The ministry’s new spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said Ankara expected to see a constructive approach so that solution could be reached before the end of 2016.
“We will continue to support with determination the process of intensive negotiations,” he said.
