MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The West’s attempts to influence the negotiating process on the Cyprus settlement are inadmissible, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
Talks between the leaders of Cyprus’ Greek and Turkish communities, Nikos Anastasiadis and Mistafa Akinci, held in Switzerland’s Mont Pelerin on Monday yielded no serious progress in the settlement process, she reminded. "At the same time, we hail the sides’ readiness for extensive work in the interests of the settlement of the problem," she said. "We hope the high dynamics of contacts of the recent time and the sides’ constructive approach will stay in place."
"Moscow is closely watching the intra-community talks," Zakharvoa said. "We think any attempts by some of our Western partners to influence the negotiating process from outside, to artificially speed up this process and to reach the settlement of the Cyprian problem at any cost inadmissible."
Cyprus has been divided into two parts since 1974 after Turkey invasion of the northern part of the island that followed a state coup staged by supporters of Cyprus’ unification with Greece. As a result of combat operations, Turkey won control of about 37% of the island’s territory where the Turkish Cypriot community unilaterally declared independence and formed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983. Turkey is the guarantor for Northern Cyprus while the island’s southern part constitutes the Republic of Cyprus populated primarily by Greek Cypriots. The two communities have been holding U.N.-brokered negotiations for decades.