After suffering 40 years of discord, the prime ministers of Turkey and of Greece both claim an opportunity now exists to reach a solution to divided Cyprus.
The Greek and Turkish communities have lived in separate parts of the island since 1974, when Turkey invaded the north after a brief Greek-inspired coup.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Greece's Alexis Tsipras have recently held regular telephone discussions, particularly concerning migration issues. Tsipras is currently visiting Turkey.
"There is a window of opportunity right now over the Cyprus issue. The negotiations are going on. We have a common approach with Greece to contribute positively to the talks," Davutoglu said at a joint news conference with Tsipras.
"We will move ahead with our efforts to encourage the two communitie to reach a just and viable solution," Tsipras said. "I believe we're nearing an opportunity -- I don't want to be overly optimistic, I am moderately optimistic -- but I believe we must encourage a solution."
The EU deals only with the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia considering it to represent the whole island. The Turkish Cypriot administration in the north is unrecognised internationally except by Turkey.
Cyprus hosts one of the world's oldest peacekeeping forces, monitoring a 180-km ceasefire line that divides the eastern Mediterranean island.
Talks on unification were given new energy when a moderate was elected as Turkish Cypriot leader in May.
But there are still many unresolved questions on the agenda, including the amount of autonomy each community would have and how a new state would function in the two-zone federation.
Another hurdle is that of the property claims from tens of thousands of people who were displaced in the conflict.
