The leaders of the island’s two divided communities agreed on Friday to meet twice a month as they revived UN-sponsored peace talks that had been suspended last October when Turkey sent a survey ship into the island’s commercial waters, as the government continues exploration for oil and gas with foreign partners.
UN Special Advisor for Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, said after the meeting in the so-called “no man’s land” that President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci “agreed to work on a number of confidence building measures for the common good of both communities.”
As a sign of good faith, Anastasiades presented Akinci with a map pinpointing 28 minefields near the Turkish-occupied Pentadaktylos mountain peak, left behind by Greek Cypriot soldiers fleeing the Turkish invasion in 1974.
In turn, the Turkish Cypriot said that paperwork would no longer be filled by people crossing into the north, used by the administration as a way to control passage and to show that the ‘TRNC’ is a separate entity, despite it being recognised only by occupier Turkey.
The two leaders will meet again for talks on May 28, while their negotiating teams, headed by diplomats Andreas Mavroyiannis and Ozdil Nami, will continue to meet more regularly
In his remarks to reporters after the meeting with Akinci, Anastasiades said that “the talks took place in a most positive atmosphere and I believe that by working in this way we can hope for progress.”
Asked to comment on the CBMs announced by the Turkish Cypriot side, the President said that “we are still at the very first stage. We have given instructions to the interlocutors to work out a series of measures which they will suggest and they will be decided. Consequently, it is a matter of some days for the preparatory work to be done, and probably on 28 May, when the next meeting will take place, to be able to announce specific, many more measures that concern the daily lives of the citizens.”
Akinci has suggested in recent days that his side would be considering opening up the “ghost town” of Varosha, deserted and fenced off since the war in 1974, to its Greek Cypriot owners, probably under UN administration, in exchange for international recognition for Famagusta port and Tymbou (Ercan) airport, a proposal that Anastasiades had put forward at the previous meetings.
Other minor issues, such as roaming of mobile phones on both side of the 180-kilometre dividing line and common inspection and labelling of the traditional goats’ cheese “halloumi”, a major export for both sides, have also been raised by the two chambers of commerce (KEVE and KTTO) that have been collaborating on many issues in the past years.
