Territory row looms over Cyprus showdown talks

Rival Cypriot leaders will broach a multi-billion-euro territory dispute next week in Switzerland as part of UN-backed peace talks aimed at solving one of the world's longest-running political crises. Negotiations are due to discuss the previously intractable issue of territorial adjustments on the Mediterranean resort island - a main bone of contention during four decades of discord between its Greek- and Turkish-speaking communities.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece. UN-brokered talks between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci began 17 months ago and have been billed as the island's last best chance for an enduring peace deal.
Anastasiades this week urged both sides to "seize the opportunity not only to eliminate or reduce existing differences... but to achieve such progress on territory which allows us to lead to a final settlement". But talks have been beset by problems - including disputes over property and compensation - and Turkish Cypriot foreign minister Tahsin Ertugruloglu told AFP last month that the peace process was "obviously a failure".
Analysts say that any deal hinges on the issue of territory swaps, which could see a number of Turkish Cypriots displaced from their homes. "Certain psychological barriers have been broken through if they can actually sit down with maps and share their positions with each other," said Fiona Mullen, a Cyprus-based analyst at Sapienta Economics.
The two leaders will attempt to agree on the internal boundary between two future constituent states, allowing for the return of some areas in Turkish-held northern Cyprus to the Greek Cypriots. "Territory is naturally connected to property issues and security because it affects the daily life of people living near the borders," Turkish Cypriot analyst Mete Hatay told AFP.
Without an agreement on territory there can be no decision on how many refugees can return to their former homes or how the plans for restoration, exchange or compensation of property - which could run to billions of euros (dollars) - will work. "If they crack this issue then we will be on the way to the big, multi-party discussions on security," Mullen said. "That's really the endgame." Although initially costly, the International Monetary Fund believes any deal would provide a long-term boost for Cyprus, which needed a multi-billion-euro bailout in 2013 to rescue its teetering economy.