Negotiations had begun in the mid-1970s to end the de facto partition and to bring the two communities together again.

Two major compromises on the part of the Republic of Cyprus had occurred in the second half of the 1970s.

First, in 1977, four guidelines for future intercommunal talks had been accepted by both communities; their thrust was that Cyprus would become a bicommunal federal republic, a departure from the terms of the constitution of 1960.

Second, the ten-point agreement of 1979, achieved at a meeting between Kyprianou and Denktash, had worked out policies to ease further intercommunal talks.