A resolution adopted by a vote of 14-1 urged Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to find a solution to the division of the Mediterranean island.
Since September 2008, Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have met more than 50 times under UN auspices to discuss a deal to reunify the island. The dispute is undermining NATO and European Union cooperation on security and hindering Turkey’s bid for EU membership. The Security Council stressed that “there now exists a rare opportunity to make decisive progress in a timely fashion” and reaffirmed the UN’s primary role in assisting the parties “to bring the Cyprus conflict and division of the island to a comprehensive and durable settlement.”
The council commended Christofias and Talat for their leadership and strongly urged them “to increase the momentum in the negotiations to ensure the full exploitation of this opportunity to reach a comprehensive settlement” based on a federal government and separate Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot states with equal status. Turkey’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, objected that the resolution, like all previous ones, referred to the “government of Cyprus,” which has been representing only the Greek Cypriots since 1963. “This could not be accepted by the Turkish Cypriot side and, as one of the guarantors of Cyprus, by Turkey,” he said.
