Cypriot Leaders Take On-Going UN-Backed Peace Process Forward
New York, Dec 16 2008 5:10PM
The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders continued United Nations-sponsored talks on the reunification of the
Mediterranean island today, pledging to meet again before the year’s end to examine issues concerning state and federal
law.
In May, Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat committed to a partnership
that will comprise a Federal Government with a single international identity, along with a Turkish Cypriot Constituent
State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State, which will be of equal status.
Speaking to the press after today’s meeting at the UN Protected Area in Nicosia, the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Cyprus, Alexander Downer, reported that the two leaders focused their discussions on external
relations and the powers of a federal government.
The leaders are slated to return to the negotiations on 22 December, when they will discuss the relationship between
laws passed by the federal government and legislation created by the country’s constituent states.
The full-fledged power-sharing negotiations, central to the reunification process in Cyprus – where UN peacekeepers have
been deployed since March 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities –
began in September.
ENDS