'Cyprus crisis can be resolved': UN envoy

By Murat Demirci

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Mustafa Akinci hosted UN Special Cyprus Envoy Espen Barth Eide in the capital Lefkosa on Saturday.

Turkish Cypriot negotiator Ozdil Nami, TRNC presidential spokesman Baris Burcu along with the UN secretary general's special representative, Elizabeth Spehar were also present at the meeting which lasted three hours.

During the news conference after the meeting Eide acknowledged Greece’s “Enosis commemoration in schools” issue was a problem in negotiations and added they are trying to think of ways to overcome the matter.

The Greek Cypriot parliament recently voted to introduce a yearly public school commemoration of a 1950 referendum in which Greek Cypriots voted overwhelmingly for Athens to take over the island, an idea known as Enosis (Union).

The eastern Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after an Enosis-inspired 1974 military coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turkish population, and the subsequent intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power.

Cyprus remains unsolved despite a series of discussions which resumed in May 2015.