With talks to reunify Cyprus having collapsed and little hope seen for bringing it back together, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has reportedly recommended setting specific guidelines in another last-gasp bid.

Speaking at a conference in Constantinople he said if the talks are renewed that both sides should not dither with unfocused general talks that have gone nowhere almost 44 years after an unlawful invasion saw Turkey occupy the northern third of the island.

Negotiations over Cyprus should concetrate on specific issues and not “waste time” with general talks, reportedly said on Friday, speaking at a conference in Istanbul.

“It is waste of time to sit and negotiate just for the sake of conversation. It should be determined what will be negotiated, a calendar should also be determined and negotiation should be result oriented. We have no energy to lose,” he told the conference titled The Importance of International Relations in Turkey, said Kathimerini.

He said Cyprus is a national issue for Turkey and that his country is taking the “necessary steps” to reach an agreement, adding that resolving the problem “does not only depend on Turkey. There are guarantor countries and two sides on the island.”

That was in reference to Turkey, along with Greece and the United Kingdom, the former Colonial ruler which still has a base on the island being guarantors of security,  along with a small United Nations peacekeeping force, a system, which Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades wanted replaced with an international police force.

Negotiations fell apart at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana in July, 2017 when Turkey insisted on keeping an army on the occupied part as well as demanding the right to militarily intervene again when it wanted.