UPDATE - Cyprus talks back on track after two-month break

UPDATE WITH AKINCI’S STATEMENT, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Murat Demirci

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - UN-brokered Cyprus peace talks resumed Tuesday following a break of nearly two months in negotiations.

The dialogue restarted after the island’s Greek Cypriot administration moved to reverse a controversial commemoration law that had emerged as a stumbling block to reunification.

Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci met Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades in the island’s buffer zone after UN consultations with both sides.

After the four-hour meeting, Akinci told journalists they had decided to meet another four times before mid-May, with the next on April 20.

Negotiators from both sides will meet frequently, he added.

Akinci and Anastasiades have been involved in reunification talks to create a federal state since May 2015.

The leaders met several times in Geneva last year but their last meeting in February was embroiled in controversy over the Greek Cypriot assembly’s decision to introduce a school commemoration of the 1950 Enosis referendum on unification with Greece.

Akinci said Anastasiades had walked out – “slammed the door and left” -- when UN envoy Espen Barth Eide and Akinci expressed concern over the Enosis issue. Anastasiades later insisted he left the room during a break.

- School commemorations

Following mediation, the UN announced the resumption of talks earlier this month.

Last Friday, the Greek Cypriot assembly voted to shelve yearly school commemorations.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when a Greek coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turkish population and Ankara intervened to protect them.

Before the two-month hiatus, the two sides had agreed on most of the issues in the reunification deal but the sticking points, including a security and guarantees system, remain unresolved.

Turkey insists 30,000 Turkish troops must remain on the island as part of Ankara’s role as a guarantor power.

Last week Akinci said new talks would be a fresh beginning for both sides but warned that Turkey was not expected to take unilateral steps in the negotiation process.

“The result can be obtained if this path is walked together,” Akinci said.

Once a final agreement is reached, it would be put to both communities in a referendum. A peace deal was approved by Turkish Cypriots in 2004 but rejected by Greek Cypriot voters.