Cyprus talks: Cyprus talks 'at crossroads' - UN envoy

The United Nations' envoy for Cyprus Espen Barthe Eide on Thursday said the negotiations talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots to end the decades-old division of island have reached a critical juncture with only a small number of issues left to be resolved.

The island of Cyprus has been split on ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the north of the island in response to a coup by Greek Cypriot militants seeking union with Greece.

The problem since then has kept Greece and Turkey at loggerheads and holding back Ankara's ambitions of joining the European Union.

"We are at a crossroads," UN envoy Espen Barthe Eide told Reuters in an interview.

"I think the leaders know that we are at the crossroads and at the crossroads you have to take the right turn, or the alternative is the wrong turn," he added.

Eide, a former Norwegian foreign minister, has been overseeing the talks between Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci for about two years as him and his team facilitate the discussions between the two leaders to reunite the island under a federal umbrella of two semi-autonomous zones.

According to Eide, there was "no doubt" that the two had come closer to a solution than ever before. 

On whether a peace plan could be agreed by the two sides and then put to forward in a referendum this year, he said that; "I believe its possible. Whether it will happen, I think I will remain open. It's doable."

He added that "There are a relatively small number of outstanding issues, the vast majority is done." 

Greece, Turkey and Britain are guarantor powers under a 1960 treaty that granted the former British colony independence. It was cited by Turkey as a basis for the 1974 invasion, of which Greek Cypriots and Greece want the system dismantled but Turkey and Turkish Cypriots want the system to remain intact.

"On that one I am quite optimistic, that's within reach," Eide said on the prospects of a deal on security.

Though there is no timeframe for a settlement, Eide said it was understood that the process could not go on indefinitely.

"There is no time limit ... but there is a shared understanding that we do not have oceans of time and that there is no time like the present."

Reuters