Turkish Cypriot leader wants island solution in 2016

By Selcuk Acar

NEW YORK

The president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus said Saturday he wants a “political solution” on the divided Mediterranean island by the end of the year.

“Our aim is to reach a political solution before 2016 ends,” Mustafa Akinci told reporters in New York after a 20-minute meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“I believe that this meeting and hopefully tomorrow’s meeting will be very important in the sense that [it] will pave the way … a way which will carry us to the long way to the final conclusion of the 50-year problem which exists in Cyprus,” Akinci said.

“[Ban] reiterated his personal commitment to our process and he repeated he is available anytime during the last phase of his tenure,” he added.

Akinci, who is in New York as part of the 71st annual UN General Assembly meetings, will also meet Sunday with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

Reunification talks between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island resumed in May 2015 when the then newly-elected Akinci met Anastasiades.

The eastern Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after a 1974 military coup on the island was followed by the intervention of Turkey as a guarantor power.