Turkey Wants Cyprus Referendum in Early 2012

Turkey hopes that accelerated peace talks in Cyprus will lead to a referendum on reunification early next year; Anatolia news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying Saturday.

"We expect and hope that a comprehensive settlement is found to the Cyprus problem by the year-end, a referendum is held in the beginning of 2012 and a united Cyprus takes over the EU presidency in July 2012," Davutoglu said in the Turkish sector of Cyprus' divided capital Nicosia.

"This should be our target... It is obvious that open-ended talks... will lead to nowhere," he said, according to Anatolia.

Davutoglu spoke following talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday set an October target for Eroglu and Cyprus President Demetris Christofias to secure a broad accord on ending the island's 37-year division.

Peace negotiations, under way since September 2008, have so far failed to produce any tangible progress and the U.N. has said it cannot see talks dragging on for much longer.

Key sticking points of disagreement include territorial adjustments, security arrangements and property rights.

Christofias, whose Greek Cypriot government is the island's internationally recognized administration, has said the ideal target date for a solution would be before Cyprus takes on the EU presidency in July 2012.

The previous U.N. push to reunify the Mediterranean island failed in 2004 when the Greek Cypriots voted down a U.N.-drafted settlement plan even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming support.

Cyprus, represented only by the Greek Cypriots, joined the EU the same year, while the Turkish Cypriots were left out in the cold.

The conflict remains a major stumbling block for Turkey's own bid to join the EU.

Davutoglu on Saturday renewed an appeal on the international community to ease restrictions slapped on Eroglu's self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece which was then ruled by a military junta.