NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – Waving peace flags and dancing to Cypriot folk music, hundreds of Greek and Turkish Cypriots demonstrated for peace on Monday as the ethnically divided island’s rival leaders continued complex reunification talks at a Swiss resort that will indicate whether an accord is within reach.
Organizers said the event inside the United Nations-controlled buffer zone dividing the capital, Nicosia, aimed to show the determination of Cypriots from both sides for an agreement ending more than four decades of division.
“Fear is holding us back,” said Greek Cypriot Rania Georgiou. “Our future must be a shared one.”
Turkish Cypriot Cem Parisiz said the island’s division has been allowed to drag on too long. “We breathe the same air, we drink the same water, we don’t need to be separated by borders,” he said.
A 1974 Turkish invasion triggered by a coup aiming at union with Greece divided Cyprus into an internationally recognized, Greek-speaking south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and it maintains some 35,000 troops in the north.