Davutoglu: "Ankara hopes for a Cyprus referandum early next year"

Ankara hopes terms for the reunification of Cyprus can be reached by year's-end so that a referendum can be held in early 2012, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday. "We hope to find a solution to the Cyprus problem by the end of the year, and hold a referendum in the early months of next year so that Cyprus can take on the presidency of the EU as a new state representing the whole island," Davutoglu said during a visit to the Turkish Cyprus Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Cyprus, in the form of a unified Cyprus or merely Greek Cyprus, is due to assume the EU's six-month rotating presidency next July. The Cyprus dispute is a major obstacle to Turkey's bid to join the European Union, aside from opposition from EU heavyweights France and Germany. "A solution will bring real peace to the eastern Mediterranean and truly unite Europe," Davutoglu said during a joint news conference with TRNC President Dervis Eroglu. The last unification referendum on Cyprus, in 2004, was approved by Turkish Cypriots but rejected by Greek Cypriots, resulting de facto in only the Greek Cypriot half of the island being part of the EU.