Cyprus may have missed its last chance for reunification

DIPLOMATS have been trying to broker an agreement to reunify Cyprus for decades. When UN-sponsored talks reconvened on June 28th in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana, the chance of reaching a deal seemed high. Nicos Anastasiades, Cyprus’s president, and Mustafa Akinci, his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart, trust each other, are determined to reunite the island and generally agree on how to do so. Indeed, reunification talks came closer to success last week than ever before.

But on July 7th negotiations broke down. Antonio Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, announced that the conference had ended “without the possibility to bring a solution to this dramatic and long-lasting problem”. According to Ozdil Nami, the lead negotiator for the Turkish-Cypriot team, the sides remain split over two issues: power-sharing arrangements in a unified government, and security guarantees for the island’s ethnically Turkish north, where tens of thousands of Turkish troops are currently stationed. Many fear that Cyprus has missed its last chance to avoid permanent partition.