March 15, 2017•Update: March 15, 2017
By Murat Demirci
LEFKOSA, Northern Cyprus
The UN will not arbitrate further in negotiations to reunify Cyprus, the UN secretary general’s special adviser said Wednesday.
Espen Barth Eide said effective leadership by the heads of the Turkish and Greek communities on the island was the key to resolving the 43-year split.
“There is absolutely no intention on the UN side to go into arbitration,” Eide told journalists after meeting Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus President Mustafa Akinci in Lefkosa.
“We tried that before. Even if I was asked to arbitrate, I wouldn’t do it. I am determined to keep this a leader-led process.”
Akinci and Greek Cypriot administration leader Nicos Anastasiades have been involved in UN-led talks to create a federal two-part state since May 2015. Last month, a decision by the Greek Cypriot assembly to introduce a school commemoration of a 1950 referendum on unification with Greece saw the discussions stall.
Speaking about the fall out from assembly’s vote, Eide said: “It is not solved. It can be solved. I think eventually, in the end, it will be solved. There is a will to overcome [the problems].
“What is really the essence now is what we do when we are back at the table.”
He added that any “settlement in Cyprus will be facilitated by Mr. Akinci and Mr. Anastasiades.”
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turkish population and Turkey’s intervention to protect them.
