UN-backed inter-communal negotiations aimed at resolving the anomalous political situation in Cyprus have been going on intermittently for over 50 years now. In the last decade, the parties’ appeared to have come close to a settlement on the basis of the so-called Annan Plan. The latter then collapsed in the 2004 referenda, after which there was no real dialogue for several years. In the spring of 2008, the process was relaunched and still continues eight years on, having survived two major interruptions during this time. The more recent of these interruptions, which lasted from October 2014 to April 2015, was in fact rather serious, as it resulted from a dispute over offshore natural resources, which critically involves Turkey.
Gürel, Ayla & Harry Tzimitras (2016) Cyprus Settlement Negotiations: From Euphoria to Reality, Turkish Policy Quarterly 15 (1): 51–63.
