Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders are to meet on Tuesday to relaunch talks on ending the island's four-decade division after a nearly two-year break, U.N. mediators announced.

"Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will meet in the United Nations Protected Area of Nicosia at the Good Offices Mission on Tuesday," a statement said on Saturday.

Greek and Turkish Cypriots have agreed on a roadmap prepared by the U.N. to resume reunification talks, the Turkish Cypriot leadership said Friday.

"The Greek and Turkish sides in Cyprus have reached an agreement on a common declaration for resuming negotiations," it said in a statement.

A Turkish MP from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party quit Friday in protest at his handling of a major corruption probe, the ninth such departure since the scandal broke in December.

Lawmaker Ilhan Isbilen is close to Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher living in the United States whose Hizmet network Erdogan has blamed for orchestrating the investigation.

Turkey scrambled an F-16 jet Friday to force down an airliner from Ukraine when a would-be hijacker on board ordered it to Sochi where the Winter Olympic opening ceremony was underway, Turkish officials said.

Turkish media reported that a Ukrainian man brandishing a detonator tried to gain access to the cockpit of the aircraft operated by Turkey's Pegasus Airlines while it was in the air.

Turkey has deported an Azeri journalist for tweets criticizing the government, his newspaper reported Friday, as concerns grow about state efforts to muzzle the media.

Mahir Zeylanov's expulsion has yet to be officially confirmed, although a photo doing the rounds on Twitter appeared to show him being escorted by police through an airport.

Syrian, Iranian and Swiss officials met in Tehran Tuesday to discuss improving aid access to victims of the conflict in Syria, a delegate at the talks said.

The meeting, the third between the three parties since April 2013, looked at "establishing more favorable conditions for humanitarian action," Manuel Bessler, the delegate of the Swiss Federal Council for Humanitarian Aid, told Agence France Presse.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday after talks with the visiting Turkish prime minister for a more united U.N. Security Council response to the "inconceivable" humanitarian plight of Syrian refugees.

Talks with Russia and China should be held as well as with non-Security Council member Iran to help people fleeing the nearly three-year-old conflict, Merkel told a joint press conference with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Germany Tuesday to step up support for Turkey's European Union entry bid but acknowledged his country must also press on with reforms.

Erdogan told a Berlin think tank on a visit to Europe's top economy that the EU could also benefit from Turkey's presence at the bloc's table such as in regional conflict resolution.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ally-turned-rival Fethullah Gulen is suing him in the wake of a deeply damaging corruption scandal, a newspaper close to Gulen's movement reported Tuesday.

Gulen, an Islamic preacher living in self-imposed exile in the United States, is claiming 100,000 lira (32,700 euros, $44,200) in damages from Erdogan for allegedly denigrating and insulting remarks, the Zaman daily said.

Four Turkish policemen on Monday denied beating to death a 19-year-old student in mass anti-government protests that rocked the country last June, as they went on trial amid heavy security.

The high-profile murder case comes as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan battles his biggest political crisis in 11 years in power, which has hit the economy and is threatening the strongman's presidential ambitions.