Cyprus Unification Talks Collapse: UN

Date: 07 July 2017 - 20:41

News ID: ۴۱۴۰۱

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AFP) -- Marathon talks aimed at ending Cyprus's drawn-out conflict collapsed early on Friday without a deal, despite an 11th-hour bid by the United Nations chief to rescue them.
Cyprus is one of the world's longest-running political crises and the UN-backed talks that began in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana on June 28 had been billed as the best chance to end the island's 40-year division.
The failure to reach a deal brings an end to more than two years of UN-backed efforts to resolve the conflict.
"I am deeply sorry to inform you that despite the very strong commitment and engagement of all the delegations and the different parties... the Conference on Cyprus was closed without an agreement being reached," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and later occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired putsch seeking union with Greece.
Guterres held a full day of back-to-back meetings with President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek-Cypriot leader, and his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci, as well as the foreign and European affairs ministers from so-called guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and Britain.
But after pushing negotiations into Friday, just hours before he was set to leave for the G20 summit in Hamburg, a drawn-looking Guterres was forced to acknowledge that the talks ended "without a result".
Shortly before his announcement, a source close to the negotiations told AFP the talks had become heated. "There was people yelling, a lot of emotions," the source said.
Much the biggest of the areas of disagreement was the future of Turkey's troop presence on the island and its security guarantee for Turkish Cypriots.
Turkey maintains more than 35,000 troops on the island, and any prospects of reunification largely hinge on a drastic reduction of Ankara's military presence.
Several previous peace drives have stumbled over the issue, with Greek Cypriots demanding a total withdrawal of what they say is an occupying force and minority Turkish Cypriots fearful of ethnic violence in the event of a pullout.
Any deal reached would have had to be put to voters on both sides of the island.