Turkey’s vice president meets Turkish Cypriot president

ANKARA

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay met late Monday with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar at an iftar, or fast-breaking meal, for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and TRNC Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertugruloglu were also present at the working dinner held at the official residence of the vice president.

At the dinner, final assessments were made before 5+UN talks on Cyprus which are scheduled to begin Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Turkish side is expected to set out a model of a solution at the talks in Geneva in which the two states will cooperate on the island on the basis of sovereign equality.

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long struggle between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

The island has been divided since 1964, when ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Turkey’s military intervention as a guarantor power. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.

The Greek Cypriot administration, backed by Greece, became a member of the European Union in 2004, although most Greek Cypriots rejected a UN settlement plan in a referendum that year which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.

*Writing by Merve Berker