Turkish Cypriot leader hopes for reunification in 2016

By Murat Demirci

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus aims to conclude ongoing reunification talks with Greek Cypriots this year, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci said Friday.

“The goal is to make this year, 2016, a year of solution,” Akinci said following a three-hour meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Espen Barth Eide, special representative of the UN secretary-general on Cyprus.

He said the meeting had been very fruitful.

He recalled the negotiations have been continuing in the island for about half a century. “We are working to find solution on exposed issues; 2016 should be a year of solution,” he said.

Reunification talks between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island resumed in May 2015 when the newly-elected President Akinci met Anastasiades.

The eastern Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after a 1974 military coup on the island was followed by the intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power.