Geneva, April 29, (dpa/GNA) – A new round of UN-mediated talks to find a lasting solution to the decades-old dispute over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus have failed like so many others before it.
Informal meetings that began on Tuesday were ended on Thursday after the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides were unable to find enough common ground to open official negotiations, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
“I do not give up,” Guterres said in Geneva, where the discussions were held.
He said he would convene a new round of informal talks, which would again include representatives from all sides.
Guterres had Greek-Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot President Ersin Tatar meet in person, in a fresh bid to jump-start negotiations on the political status of Cyprus since it was split almost 50 years ago.
The Turkish Cypriot side is still insisting on a two-state solution, Guterres said, while the Greek Cypriot side is in favour of a federation comprising two states with a strong central government, a goal shared by previous UN resolutions.
Cyprus was a British colony until 1960.
It has been divided into a Greek-Cypriot and a smaller Turkish-Cypriot part in the north since a Greek coup and a Turkish military intervention in 1974. Only Turkey recognizes Northern Cyprus as a full state.
The whole of Cyprus became a member of the European Union in 2004, but EU law is only valid in the southern part of the island until a possible reunification.
GNA