By Ahval
The U.N. Secretary General’s special envoy for the Cyprus issue Jane Holl Lute is set to visit Turkey and Greece later this week, the Cyprus Mail reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
Holl is slated to explorethe possibilities of successfully convening a new informal 5+1 conference, comprising both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot administrations, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as announced by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Geneva last month, it said.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a brief Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. The internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus controls the southern two-thirds of the island, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), only recognised by Turkey, the remainder.
The 5+1 group meeting, held under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva on Apr. 27, failed to yield any results paving the way for the resumption of formal negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday reiterated Turkey’s stance calling for a two-state solution on the island, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The talks held informally in Geneva last month were inconclusive due to the “intransigent attitude of the Greek side, detached from the facts on island,” Erdoğan said.
