Cypriot leaders meet in Geneva

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders “made progress” in a meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported afterwards.

Ban said the rival leaders, Demetris Christofias and Dervis Eroglu, had agreed to step up negotiations aimed at ending the conflict on the divided island, and would hold more talks in the coming weeks.

However, he described the negotiating process as “very sensitive”. He did not take questions from journalists, and news conferences with the two Cypriot delegations were cancelled.

Cyprus has been divided since a 1974 Turkish invasion after a brief Greek-inspired attempted coup. Greek Cypriots living in the north fled south to the Greek-held zone, while Turkish Cypriots fled north.
 
As a result, more than a fifth of Cyprus’ population of around 1 million people are internally displaced. The most contentious issue in the talks is how to reconcile property rights and claims among those uprooted by the conflict.
 
Sources close to the talks said Ban wants to resolve the major outstanding issues by March, ahead of Turkish and Greek Cypriot parliamentary elections.

It was Ban’s second meeting in two months with Christofias and Eroglu.