Cyprus leaders continue UN-backed talks on property issue

The leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities continued their United Nations-facilitated discussions on the property issue, part of efforts to reunify the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The meetings began in 2008 after the then-leaders of the two communities committed themselves to working towards a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality, as defined by relevant Security Council resolutions.

The property aspect of the talks tries to resolve numerous complex claims between the two sides on property seized decades ago.

Turkish Cypriot leader Derviş Eroğlu and Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias are slated to meet again next week for talks, even though August is a holiday month in the country.

“The fact that these meetings are taking place between the leaders and at the Representatives’ level so many times in August is a very positive sign,” Lisa Buttenheim, the Special Representative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters after today’s meeting.

Ms. Buttenheim, who most recently served as Director of the Middle East and West Asia Division in the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the UN Secretariat in New York, was appointed to her new position last month, succeeding Tayé-Brook Zerihoun of Ethiopia.

She will now also serve as the head of the UN peacekeeping mission known as UNFICYP, which has been stationed in Cyprus since 1964 after an outbreak of inter-communal violence.