LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
The Cyprus issue could drag on if ongoing peace talks do not conclude successfully by May 2016, when parliamentary elections in Southern Cyprus are due, Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akinci warned Tuesday.
"If we fail to make a critical development by May [2016], then this issue will continue," Akinci said at a briefing in the capital of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Lefkosa.
Akinci said that he and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades had agreed to meet again on September 1 and 14 as part of the ongoing peace talks between the two sides.
"Negotiators, delegations and technical committees will intensively conduct meetings in August," he said, adding that he would also meet the UN secretary-general in New York in September.
He said that negotiations in the months of October, November and December would give a "clearer picture of where we are headed".
He said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been kept in the loop about the talks, adding that Erdogan was pleased with the progress made so far in the talks.
Political tensions in the long-divided island have eased since full-fledged talks resumed May 15.
The Greek Cypriot administration had unilaterally suspended the talks last October after Turkey issued an advisory on behalf of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for seismic research off the coast of Cyprus.
The island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot government in the northern third and a Greek Cypriot administration in the southern two-thirds after a 1974 military coup by Greece was followed by a peace operation by Turkey as a guarantor state in Cyprus.
