U.N. chief says peace deal possible between Cyprus and Turkey

By Michele Kambas

Reuters Reuters

NICOSIA: U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will seek a peace deal within a year from Cypriot leaders engaged in reunification talks Thursday, a source close to the matter said, signalling growing frustration with a slow process that is harming Turkey’s EU ambitions.

Leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have been locked in rounds of negotiations to reunify Cyprus for almost four years, the latest of many previously ill-fated attempts to piece together an island riven by ethnic violence and war.

“By focusing their energy and rising to the occasion this [a deal] could be done in a couple of weeks,” said a person on condition of anonymity.

Ban was scheduled to meet President Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader, and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu in Geneva Thursday. Another meeting with the leaders was possible in September, and Ban could also announce he was preparing a report to the Security Council on the state of play in Cyprus negotiations, the source said.

He was expected to seek a commitment from the two that they would ramp up Cyprus-based talks, held in a United Nations compound which forms part of a buffer zone splitting Greek and Turkish Cypriots since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek inspired coup.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on July 07, 2011, on page 9.

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