Cyprus: negotiations over reunification began in Switzerland

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders restarted negotiations on Wednesday for the island’s reunification.  Cyprus is divided for the last 43 years, following an invasion by Turkey in 1974, triggered by a coup backed by the Greek Colonel’s regime.

Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana, joined by senior U.N. and European Union officials and the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey.

The conference brings all the main players to the table – including representatives from Cyprus’ guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and Britain – in what is being billed as an arena “for big and lasting decisions”.

The UN envoy, Espen Barth Eide, a former Norwegian foreign minister chairing what he has described as open-ended negotiations, said: “It’s a unique opportunity, because after all of these decades of division it is possible, it is possible to solve, and I really hope that this is the spirit by which everybody goes into this meeting.” If we take our time and we focus on the essentials, its not beyond reach, it could happen, Mr Eide told reporters.

The second-best outcome would be a breakthrough on key issues, confirming a shared intent to reunify the island but requiring more talks in Cyprus to wrap up a final agreement.

Bilateral negotiations resume on Thursday, for two hours, after which the two leaders will address issues beyond the scope of the negotiation.

The process is framed in two tracks, or “tables.” ‘Table 1’ will be set as a plenary for all participants, including the guarantor powers, and ‘Table 2’ will be framed as bicommunal alone.

The issue expected to dominate the agenda will be security.

Ankara and the Turkish Cypriots are demanding the presence on the island of over 30,000 Turkish troops, retaining the security status quo. Nicosia and Athens want the renunciation of military intervention rights.

Other vexing issues are territory, governance and power-sharing, economy, property rights, and the EU. But, parties are believed to have reached preliminary agreements across the spectrum. Negotiations take place under the principle that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,’ which means one issue can spoil the agreement.

Never before has time been as pressing. After 50 years of monitoring the peace, the UN has taken the unprecedented step of signalling it will end the island’s peacekeeping mission, UNFICYP, if talks collapse again. The force is the world’s longest-running peace operation. This month Australia made the first move, announcing it was pulling out police officers from the operation and redeploying resources to the Asia-Pacific region “to enhance stability closer to home”.