06/23/2010

News / In Cyprus, leaders hold another round of UN-backed reunification talks

23 June 2010 – The Greek Cypriot leader and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart today held another round of talks aimed at reunifying the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a United Nations official said, with discussions focused this time on property issues.

“They had a frank and friendly discussion about the property issue and they discussed the property issue in some substance,” Alexander Downer, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Cyprus, told reporters in Nicosia after the meeting between Turkish Cypriot leader Derviþ Eroðlu and Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader.

The property aspect of the talks tries to resolve numerous complex claims between the two sides on property seized decades ago.

“This is the sort of thing we want to see. The leaders coming together? discussing the issue in substance. That satisfies the United Nations. That's what we want to see,” Mr. Downer said.

He said the next meeting between Mr. Eroðlu and Mr. Christofias will be held on 9 July. Their representatives will, in the meantime, have follow-up meetings on today's discussions, Mr. Downer said.

At a meeting between Mr. Ban and the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in New York on Monday, the Secretary-General stressed that Mr. Christofias and Mr. Eroðlu needed to grasp the current political window of opportunity to take the process of the reunification talks forward.

He also underscored the importance of Greece's continuing support for the UN-backed negotiations, which began in 2008 after the then leaders of the two communities committed themselves to working towards “a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality, as defined by relevant Security Council resolutions.”

That federation would comprise a federal government with a single international personality, along with a Turkish Cypriot constituent state and a Greek Cypriot constituent state, which would be of equal status.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35112&Cr=Cyprus&Cr1=

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