U.N calls April meeting for talks over divided Cyprus

The United Nations will convene a meeting of parties in the Cyprus dispute in Geneva in April, the first such meeting since 2017 when previous talks on the conflict collapsed in disarray.

“The purpose of the meeting will be to determine whether common ground exists for the parties to negotiate a lasting solution to the Cyprus problem within a foreseeable horizon,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The meeting will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 27 to 29, Dujarric said in a written statement.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup in 1974.

The conflict has been a lasting source of tension between NATO allies Greece and Turkey. More recently, it has complicated any effort to tap suspected energy resources around the Mediterranean island.

Geneva’s meeting will include the island’s Greek and Turkish Cypriot community leaders and representatives from Greece, Turkey and Britain, which were guarantors of Cyprus’s sovereignty upon independence in 1960.

Main Photo: The flags of Greece and Cyprus (L), Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (R) fly over the divided Nicosia, Cyprus. EPA/KATIA CHRISTODOULOU