Talat’s key challenger is Prime Minister Derviş Eroğlu, who says he can offer an alternative to reunification in the form of two states, referring to a Czech-Slovak-style “velvet divorce.” This is a prospect Greek Cypriots, who now represent the island internationally, refuse to contemplate.

The island of 1 million people has defied multiple efforts at mediation, with repercussions well beyond its tiny borders. Greek Cypriots, representing Cyprus in the EU, will not agree to Turkey joining the bloc until there is a solution to the decades-old conflict, harming attempts to anchor a country prone to instability closer to Europe.

Peace efforts in Cyprus collapsed in 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations reunification blueprint accepted by Turkish Cypriots. The present process, started in late 2008, is Cypriot-led, but it is a mammoth task. The aim is for the sides to agree to reunification under a federation, but they are negotiating a potential diplomatic minefield on how to co-govern, what territory each side will have and how to reconcile the property grievances of tens of thousands of internally displaced people.

“We have agreed on many issues,” Talat said in the interview, late on Thursday. He declined to say when he thought a deal could be possible after the elections -- which he said he would win -- but said a cut-off date for talks would likely be when Greek Cypriots start their own presidential campaign. “The latest realistic date would be mid-2011,” he said.

A United Nations peacekeeping force monitors a 180-kilometer cease-fire line separating the two sides. Since 1974, the situation on the island has been mostly peaceful, but Talat said the present situation was untenable. “Until a solution ... bloodshed, threats, violence are always possible. For the time being it is not happening but without a solution there is always a possibility of facing abnormalities.”

Talat’s election slogan “Ya dün, Ya dünya,” emblazoned on his red-and-white campaign bus, loosely translates as “Either yesterday, or the world.”

“Before 2004, Turkish Cypriots were totally excluded from the international community ... we brought them closer to the world,” Talat said. “People should now decide whether to go back, or move towards the world.”
 

 
 
REUTERS WITH TODAY’S ZAMAN  NICOSIA