Northern Cyprus - Peace
Negotiations to resolve the Cyprus problem have been suspended since 2017. Peace would bring hundreds of millions in investment and economic growth. Turkish Cypriots would no longer depend on the military and financial support of Turkiye. Turkiye kept more than 30,000 troops in the internationally isolated north. A peaceful and unified Cyprus would strengthen regional stability, promote cooperation on the region’s offshore gas deposits and help Turkiye in its aspiration to join the European Union.
The United Nations works through the good offices of the Secretary-General to assist the sides in the search for a comprehensive and mutually acceptable settlement to the Cyprus problem. The Department of Political Affairs provides backstopping support and guidance to the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, to facilitate the intensive negotiations that resumed in September 2008 between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders. While efforts to reunify Cyprus continue, UN peacekeepers exert a stabilizing presence. A United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNFICYP, has been deployed on the Island since 1964.
In February 2014, after a hiatus of nearly two years, the leaders of the two communities resumed formal discussions under UN auspices aimed at reuniting the divided island. The talks are ongoing. The entire island entered the EU on 1 May 2004, although the EU acquis - the body of common rights and obligations - applies only to the areas under the internationally recognized government, and is suspended in the areas administered by Turkish Cypriots. However, individual Turkish Cypriots able to document their eligibility for Republic of Cyprus citizenship legally enjoy the same rights accorded to other citizens of European Union states.
On 14 January 2015 the United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, voiced concern that, despite some recent openings in the talks, it has been impossible to get negotiations back on track. “We were not able together to stack the package in the right order, so now we’re back in an impasse,” Eide said following a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.
Leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus began a week of intensive peace talks 09 January 2017 intended to reach a deal in the context of the U.N.-led negotiations for reunifying the island. The talks between Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and their aids will be held for three days. Starting 12 January 2017, a Conference on Cyprus will take place at the United Nations' European headquarters in Geneva with the participation of other nations. Recently elected U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is expected to attend the conference, described the talks as a "historic opportunity" for a breakthrough.
The 2nd Conference on Cyprus, which convened on 28 June 2017 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, concluded after two weeks with no result. On the third day of the Conference, UNSG Guterres came to Crans-Montana and proposed a “package approach” on five headings (territory, political equality, property, equivalent treatment, security and guarantees). In this framework, the two sides presented their proposals on the five headings, while the guarantors prepared and presented their proposals solely on the chapter of security and guarantees. Despite all of this, as well as the fact that the UNSG returned to Crans-Montana on 6 July 2017 with a view to finalizing the process, the UNSG Guterres declared that the Conference had failed. UNSG Guterres emphasized that there was no single reason for the failure of the Conference and that it failed due to the inability to agree on all of the chapters.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, after Crans-Montana, in order to prove that he was ready to accept the plan, went to see the Secretary General in September 2017 and told him that our side is ready to accept the six parameters of his proposals as a package and not a la carte. Greek Cypriot government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said that there was no time frame set for the resumption of the talks.
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