NICOSIA, June 10 (Xinhua) — Peace negotiations aimed at ending the division of Cyprus will resume in Geneva on June 28, the United Nations said Friday.
The conference will be held at a political level under the auspices of the UN secretary general, according to a statement by the secretary general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric made available here.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, representing the Greek Cypriot community and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will be present at the conference, along with Greece, Turkey and Britain as guarantor powers and the European Union as observer.
Anastasiades and Akinci agreed to resume negotiations, which were stalled last month in disagreement over the modalities of the conference, after meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sunday.
The full-fledged conference will discuss security and guarantee arrangements after a solution ending the 43-year-long division of Cyprus, while Anastasiades and Akinci will discuss outstanding internal aspects of a settlement, namely territorial adjustments, the future of mostly Greek Cypriot properties, power sharing and relations with the European Union.
Cyprus was divided when Turkey mounted a military operation in 1974, in response to a Greek inspired coup, resulting in the occupation of 37 percent of the island’s territory.
Security and guarantees are expected to be the most thorny issues, as Greek Cypriots want to end any presence of Turkey on the eastern Mediterranean island, while Turkey wants to keep a military detachment and preserve intervention rights it obtained when Cyprus became independent in 1960.
Guterres’s personal envoy on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, has been engaged in a flurry of consultations with the parties involved to prepare a document acceptable by all.
Cypriot government spokesman Victor Papadopoulos said the negotiations cannot start unless the jointly acceptable document is in place by June 28.
