'Cyprus talks to restart on April 11'

By Murat Demirci and Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

The president of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus announced Friday that the island’s reunification talks would restart after the Greek Cypriot administration moved to reverse a controversial law.

"We should work to make a new start and found a new structure in which conditions for peace will prevail," Mustafa Akinci said in a written statement.

The Greek Cypriot parliament voted 30-20 Friday to shelve yearly public school commemorations of a 1950 referendum on Enosis, meaning uniting the island with Greece.

After the decision, Akinci said the Cyprus talks -- derailed by the earlier Enosis decision -- would restart on April 11.

The reunification talks -- brokered by UN Special Cyprus Envoy Espen Barth Eide -- were launched in May 2015 to discuss a permanent settlement for the divided Mediterranean island.

Cyprus was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after an Enosis-inspired 1974 military coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turkish people, and Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of discussions that resumed in May 2015.