UN-brokered Cyprus peace talks due to begin

PanARMENIAN.Net - The leaders of the divided Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus are due to resume UN-brokered peace talks, which were broken off last year, BBC News reports.

President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will relaunch the peace process later in Nicosia's neutral buffer zone.

The talks scheduled for Friday, May 15, were announced after a UN-mediated meeting on Monday.

Akinci was elected last month.

The Turkish-controlled north broke away in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup. The island has since been effectively partitioned, with the northern third inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and the southern two-thirds by Greek Cypriots.

Peace negotiations stalled last October, when the Greek Cypriots walked out in protest at the presence of a Turkish ship prospecting for natural gas off the island's south coast.

UN envoy Espen Barth Eide, a former Norwegian defense minister, has called the new initiative "a unique opportunity, an opportunity that will be grasped".

UN peacekeeping forces estimate that 165,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were expelled from the north, and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south, although the parties to the conflict say the figures are higher.

Compensation for those displaced by the conflict remains one of the thorniest issues in the talks.

The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is diplomatically isolated, recognized only by Turkey.

Correspondents say there are hopes Akinci, a leftist moderate, can push forward the talks. He defeated the hard-line incumbent Dervis Eroglu to become the Turkish Cypriot leader in April.