It’s high time Cyprus leaders healed the breach

It has been a tragedy that Cyprus has been split for more than 40 years into a Turkish north and a Greek south, and that successive attempts to heal this damaging split have failed, most recently in 2004 when Kofi Annan’s deal failed to pass a referendum in the south. Therefore it is encouraging that Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has agreed to attend a five day summit, chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. The summit intends to find a way through the tough security and territorial issues to find a peaceful solution.

One of the key remaining issues has been how to address the claims of Cypriots from both sides who fled their homes in 1974 when the Turks invaded following a Greek-backed coup by Greek Cypriots seeking union with Greece. The current talks include a proposal based on land transfers that might succeed in addressing this problem. Otherwise there is broad agreement that the re-combined state should follow a federal model, and that Turkish troops should remain initially but be phased out once the Turkish Cypriots start to trust the new system.

The existence of the northern enclave that only Turkey recognises as an independent state has gravely damaged the prosperity to which a united and peaceful Cyprus might have aspired. But the dispute has also had miserable consequences for the region, and has it made it impossible for Turkey to develop better relations with the European Union. In addition, the perpetuation of such a deep ethnic spilt has dangerous possibilities at a time of growing inter-ethnic conflict in the nearby Middle East.