Turkey hints alternative to federation for Cyprus peace deal

Ankara: A Turkish foreign ministry official says reunifying Cyprus as a federation may not be possible and is suggesting that alternatives should be sought to resolve the island nation’s decades-long ethnic division.

Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy on Thursday faulted the “Greek Cypriots’ mindset” for the collapse of numerous rounds of peace talks, including the latest nearly a year ago.

Aksoy said Turkey believes “that it is time to try a new way” in achieving a peace deal. He didn’t elaborate on what the alternatives could be.

If Turkey no longer supports a federal deal for Cyprus, it would be a major shift from long-established parameters that have steered negotiations over four decades.

Those parameters envision the two zones separately administered by Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots unifying under a jointly run federal structure.