President Cyprus verslagen in eerste ronde verkiezingen (en)
Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos has been defeated in the first round of the divided country's presidential elections in which a relaunch of the island's peace process was the dominant issue.
Mr Papadopoulos has come in third, with 31.79 percent, behind his pro-peace process rivals conservative Ioannis Kassoulides with 33.51 percent, and Communist Demetris Christofias, with 33.29 percent.
The president's result means he will not make it into the 24 February run-off.
In 2004, Mr Papadopoulos successfully encouraged the Greek Cypriot community to reject a peace plan devised by then UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, that had been overwhelmingly supported by the island's Turkish community.
In campaigning, the president warned that his rivals would "sell out" Greek Cypriot interests if they were elected.
Both Mr Christofias and Mr Kassoulides meanwhile campaigned on a re-launch of peace talks that had stalled after the 2004 referendum on the Annan Plan. Both candidates said they hoped to achieve a reunification of the island, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Despite the incumbent's warnings, some two thirds of voters seem to have embraced the idea of returning to the negotiating table.
Communal violence between the Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority followed the island's independence from Britain in 1960, with 20-25,000 Turkish Cypriots evicted from their homes.
Then, in July, 1974, the Greek military junta backed a coup by officers in the Cypriot National Guard who had the aim of unifying Cyprus with Greece. Turkey, claiming it was defending the Cyprus' post-colonial constitution, invaded the same month, capturing more than a third of the island. An estimated 3,500 people were killed in the invasion, although casualty figures are contested.
Analysts are saying the defeat of Mr Papadopoulos means Greek Cypriots have rejected the president's hardline approach and is good news for the peace process.
"Ghost town" of Famagusta
Earlier this month, the European Parliament's petition committee investigated the plight of Famagusta, often referred to as the last ghost town in Europe and a veritable symbol of the island's divisions.
The town is situated in a bay on the east coast of the island. During the second part of the Turkish invasion in August 1974, the Turkish Army captured Famagusta, with the town's entire Greek Cypriot population fleeing ahead of the advancing forces.
Distinct from other areas of the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the Greek Cypriot section of Varosha in the town was closed off by the Turkish army and remains to this day under military occupation.
Greek Cypriots are not allowed to return, and the quarter remains precisely as it was in 1974, with department stores stocked with dusty clothes from the seventies and hotels stocked but with neither staff nor guests.
The city symbolises the island's recent history, and is also a key to the peace process, with the Turkish Cypriots intending to return the town to Greek Cypriot control as part of a confederal peace agreement should one be achieved.
The Greek Cypriots, meanwhile, want their properties back before peace agreement is reached.
The Famagusta case saw the roughly 30,000 Greek Cypriot refugees from the quarter appeal to the parliament's petition committee to claim the right to return to their homes.
Marios Matsakis, a Greek Cypriot MEP, who sits with the liberals in the parliament, was a candidate in the 2008 Cyprus presidential elections, although not one of the three frontrunners. He told EUobserver that he believes the resolution of the Famagusta issue could create a dynamic that propels the island towards reunification and even aid Turkey's accession to the EU.
Nonetheless, he said: "Famagusta must be differentiated from the Cyprus issue," implying properties belonging to the Famagustans must be returned to them immediately, ahead of any further negotiations. He regards the occupation of Varosha as being used by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots as bargaining chip, intending to force Greek Cypriots to accept the confederal comprehensive settlements that the Turkish side prefers.
Yalcin Vehit meanwhile, the representative in Brussels of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - a state that is only recognized by Turkey - said Varosha should be "used as an incentive to find a compromise."
MEPs from a range of different political orientations expressed their support for the expelled citizens of Famagusta, who had sent representatives of the municipality's government in exile to meet with parliamentarians. But while some supported their call for an immediate return to their homes ahead of a comprehensive settlement, others drew the opposite conclusion.
Carlos Iturgaiz Angulo, a Spanish centre-right MEP underlined the role of the European Parliament in the dispute: "Europe must engage with procedures to enable inhabitants of Famagusta to return to their properties whether or not comprehensive settlements have been reached."
Marco Cappato, an Italian liberal MEP, believes Famagusta citizens have "the right to claim their properties back," but "negotiations should be open at highest level to install peace talk solutions."
He also said: "the EU's [original] mistake was to postpone negotiations. They should have taken place before Cyprus' accession to the EU. Now the mediator role of the EU is compromised."
Famagusta mayor Alexis Galanos, in Brussels as part of the municipal delegation, said: "The return of the town of Famagusta constitutes a European responsibility." The petition committee will meet to consider the petition later this month.