LEFKOSA
The president of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on Thursday that he was not hopeful about a solution in Cyprus before February 2013.
Dervis Eroglu said that it was a dream to hope for continuation of Cyprus negotiations between the period when the Greek Cypriot administration would take over the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) and the day when the Greek Cypriot presidential election would take place.
"And it is also a dream to hope to get a result from negotiations during that period," Eroglu said during a meeting in Lefkosa, TRNC.
Eroglu said TRNC was thinking of bringing up confidence-building measures in that period and make a re-assessment after the Greek Cypriot presidential election.
TRNC President Eroglu also said it would be no use to go on holding open-ended negotiations, adding that it would be better to put a deadline if negotiations were to be resumed.
Eroglu and Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias have been holding talks since 2008.
The UN-brokered talks was aimed to set up a federal government with a single international personality in a bi-zonal, bi-communal country, with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot constituent states of equal status.
Talks between Cypriot parties are focusing on "property" topic. The parties have very different stances about the topic.
On April 27, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Cyprus Alexander Downer said he planned to carry out "a two-week shuttle diplomacy" between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to see if they could agree on methods for a fresh round of settlement negotiations to reunify the island.
