With the islands Greek and Turkish leaders set for talks, many see this as the best ever chance to end the wests longest running diplomatic row
The prospect of a breakthrough ending the decades-old division of Cyprus could be delivered at a much-anticipated meeting between the leaders of the islands two estranged communities.
Reunification hopes are expected to be reinvigorated on Sunday when the president, Nicos Anastasiades, who heads Greeks in the south, and Mustafa Aknc, who heads Turks in the north, hold talks in New York with the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
We have prepared this meeting very well and have worked for the best possible outcome, said Espen Barth Eide, the secretary-generals special adviser on Cyprus.
That the meeting is taking place at all is a breakthrough in itself. In the 16 months since this latest round of peace talks began, the two men have only ever met together with Ban on one other occasion.
For many the closed-door, sit-down session is a reflection of heightened expectations that the wests longest running diplomatic row is close to being solved.
Taboos, said Eide, have finally been lifted. What is new compared with previous intensified periods is that all issues are on the table, the Norwegian diplomat said earlier this month.
Its good to be in a place where there are no taboos, no issues which cannot be touched upon, he added, even if the two leaders had agreed not to discuss maps and figures.
On both sides there is consensus that the negotiations have reached an endgame. In Anastasiades and Aknc, two moderates who have been vocal advocates of reconciliation, analysts see a once in a generation opportunity to achieve a settlement.
Addressing the UN general assembly on Thursday, the Greek-Cypriot leader said a solution would offer a beacon of hope that even the worlds seemingly most intractable problems could finally be settled.
I wish to, yet again, reiterate my resolve to continue working with the same determination and intensive pace in order to reach a solution the soonest and, if possible, by the end of the year, Anastasiades insisted.
Washington and the European Union are optimistic a settlement can be found. So, too, is Turkey, the country that invaded the island in the summer of 1974 in response to an Athens-inspired coup aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece.
We want to find a solution as soon as possible, Turkeys ambassador to Greece, Kerim Uras, told the Observer. And we think it is achievable in 2016.
For Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan, whose ties with the west have become increasingly strained since his wide-ranging purge of perceived participants in Julys attempted military coup, a Cyprus settlement could be extremely advantageous.