{"id":15614,"date":"2026-08-20T12:18:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=15614"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:18:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:18:03","slug":"un-cyprus-talks-set-for-aug-20-as-border-crossing-deal-eyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/un-cyprus-talks-set-for-aug-20-as-border-crossing-deal-eyed\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Cyprus Talks Set for Aug. 20 as Border Crossing Deal Eyed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <em>The National Herald<\/em>, the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus issued a statement on August 11 describing the date as &#8220;yet another dark anniversary&#8221; in a post on the social media platform X.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tasos Isaak<\/strong> and <strong>Solomos Solomou<\/strong> were killed by Turkish military personnel in August 1996 during demonstrations against Turkey&#8217;s illegal occupation of the northern portion of Cyprus. The Cypriot government characterized the killings as cowardly and brutal murders that brought grief to Cyprus and Greeks worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>The deaths occurred amid heightened tensions along the buffer zone separating the Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish Pseudostate in Northern Cyprus, which has occupied the territory since Turkey&#8217;s 1974 invasion.<\/p>\n<p>The anniversary comes as Cyprus remains divided, with the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus controlling the southern two-thirds of the island while Turkish forces maintain their presence in the north. Turkey is the only nation that recognizes the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.<\/p>\n<p>The 1996 killings are remembered annually by Greek Cypriots as a symbol of the ongoing occupation and the human cost of Turkey&#8217;s military presence on the island. No Turkish personnel were ever held accountable for the deaths.<\/p>\n<p>The Cypriot government continues to seek a resolution to the Cyprus question through United Nations-mediated negotiations, though progress has remained elusive for decades despite multiple rounds of talks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/thenationalherald.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The National Herald<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cyprus marked the 30th anniversary of two Greek Cypriots killed by Turkish forces during 1996 protests in the occupied zone, with no one held accountable for the deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":15613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[213,9496,8430,9493,12047,95,204],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-15614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cyprus","tag-greek-cypriots","tag-northern-cyprus","tag-solomos-solomou","tag-tasos-isaak","tag-turkey","tag-united-nations","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15619,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15614\/revisions\/15619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15614"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=15614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}