Cyprus talks to restart on April 11: Akinci

By Murat Demirci and Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - The president of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus announced Friday that the island’s reunification talks would restart after the Greek Cypriot administration moved to reverse a controversial law.

"We should work to make a new start and found a new structure in which conditions for peace will prevail," Mustafa Akinci said in a written statement.

The Greek Cypriot parliament voted 30-20 Friday to shelve yearly public school commemorations of a 1950 referendum on Enosis, meaning uniting the island with Greece.

After the decision, Akinci said the Cyprus talks -- derailed by the earlier Enosis decision -- would restart on April 11.

The reunification talks -- brokered by UN Special Cyprus Envoy Espen Barth Eide -- were launched in May 2015 to discuss a permanent settlement for the divided Mediterranean island.

Cyprus 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 people, and Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of discussions that resumed in May 2015.