Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kikapu]

Special report
EU ENLARGEMENT

No love lost
May 29th 2008
From The Economist print edition

The two halves of Aphrodite’s island remain at loggerheads

A new take on the Green LineFOR a restaurant built in ten days flat and opened only five days before your correspondent’s visit, the Corado kebab house in Nicosia grills a pretty good chicken. The restaurant lies a few metres north of the Green Line that has been separating the Greek-speaking majority from the Turkish-speakers in the north for more than 40 years, cutting the island of Cyprus into two. On a recent spring evening business was humming as kebabs were rushed to tables in the alley outside its open-fronted kitchen. Four other restaurants opened nearby in the space of a week.

This mini-boom was prompted by increased freedom of movement. Politicians and security chiefs from both sides agreed to open a new crossing-point round the corner from the Corado on April 3rd. The opening followed the election defeat of the island’s hardline president, Tassos Papadopoulos. The new president, Demetris Christofias, and the northern Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, know each other well: they are comrades from the pan-Cypriot trade-union movement. This has sparked cautious optimism about fresh peace talks launched in March.


It has been possible to cross the Green Line in a few places since 2003, but after the initial enthusiasm the number of people making the journey dropped sharply. This latest crossing, on Ledra Street, the old commercial heart of the capital, is different. Crossing elsewhere takes planning; at Ledra Street, you can cross on a whim. After the bland modernity of Greek-speaking Nicosia, the Turkish side offers a jumble of crumbling mansions and scruffy bazaars, mosques of honey-coloured stone and weed-filled ruins.

Numbers of those crossing northward nearly doubled to some 55,000 in the week after Ledra Street opened, with crowds of Greek-Cypriots joined by the odd sunburnt tourist. Staff at the Corado thought their new customers were attracted by the low prices. Greek-Cypriots said curiosity was a bigger lure. Either way, being able to cross at Ledra Street feels long overdue. The Republic of Cyprus, which in legal terms means the whole island, joined the EU in 2004, and Cypriots on both sides of the Green Line are citizens of the union. Yet the frozen conflict has only partly thawed. Around the corner from the new crossing, with its tubs of flowers and smart awnings, the old barrier still snakes its way through the city, guarded by troops.

The first four years of Cypriot membership amount to a failure for the EU’s enlargement policy. Turkey does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus, even though it is itself a candidate to join the club of which Cyprus is now a member. Turkish-Cypriots were promised access to all the familiar instruments of European soft power. Direct trade with the EU was to be encouraged, and €259m was to be spent on things like scholarships, waterworks and projects to foster links between the two Cypriot communities. But progress has foundered on Turkish-Cypriot demands for direct trade and Greek-Cypriot blocking of any project that implies recognition of the authorities in the Turkish north. A deadline for using the cash promised in 2004 is drawing near, yet by March 2008 only 5% of it had been spent.

All or nothing

In Brussels, Cypriot diplomats’ obstruction of EU projects designed to end the isolation of the north cause anger. Many say Cyprus should never have been admitted as a divided island. In truth, the EU had no choice. Greece made it clear that it would not approve any new expansion of the EU unless it included Cyprus.

Cypriot officials often have the law on their side. The European Commission admits, for example, that it is hard to plan infrastructure projects in the north when an estimated 78% of private land there belongs to Greek-Cypriot families. But insisting on those legal rights has costs. Free movement of goods, people and services is not just a technical aspect of life in the EU: the EU’s transformative power is based on economics.

It was never likely that western Europe stopped warring and borders disappeared because Europeans became kindlier or more prepared to observe international treaties. Clearly, prosperity made sharing easier and cross-border trade made all participants better off. But in Cyprus, the past four years have offered a demonstration of what happens when politics blocks that economic alchemy: peace stalls.

Strictly speaking, EU law is "suspended" in the north, home to about 30,000 Turkish troops who never left after invading the island in 1974 and driving a third of the Greek-speaking population from their homes. In the Turkish telling of it, their troops came to bring peace after inter-communal violence and a military coup in the south aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. Since 1983 the northern side has called itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, an isolated non-state recognised only by Turkey.

In the eyes of Greek-Cypriots, the occupation must be ended by a peace settlement under which all Turkish troops leave and stolen Greek-Cypriot property is returned or proper compensation paid. A week before Cyprus joined the EU, Greek-Cypriot voters rejected a United Nations peace plan that they felt did not offer enough on either front (but Turkish-Cypriots voted yes).

Official figures show two-way trade across the Green Line to be worth less than €500,000 a month, with black-market trade perhaps five times as large. Turkish-Cypriot goods are unwelcome in the south. Turkish-Cypriots themselves—or at least the 82,000 or so who hold Cypriot ID cards—come to the richer south for shopping and free medical care. Greek-Cypriots head north for beaches, casinos and brothels. But although workers are in short supply in the south, thanks mainly to a property boom, only 6,000 Turkish-Cypriots commute to work in the south.

A recent study by a Norwegian group, the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO), suggests that a reunified Cyprus could gain €1.8 billion a year from increased tourism and freed-up trade with Turkey. Manthos Mavrommatis, head of the Greek-Cypriot chamber of commerce, notes that Greek-Cypriot businessmen are a swash-buckling lot, investing in tough spots from Russia to Syria, yet Turkey is seen as off-limits even though it is the biggest market in the region. Turkey’s refusal to open its ports and airports to Cypriot ships and airliners (despite a promise to do so) is driving away more and more shipping business to rivals such as Malta.

Right or might?

Yet politicians rarely make an economic case for peace. At his (legally non-existent) presidential palace, the northern leader, Mr Talat, asked how he would try to persuade Greek-Cypriots to back a future settlement, does not mention free movement of people or goods. Instead, he issues a warning that Turkish-Cypriot opinion has become disenchanted with the EU in the past four years and there is a real threat of permanent partition. "In Cyprus, the economy is a secondary issue," he says. He does concede that the recent adoption of the euro in the south solves one problem that has caused rows in the past: how to merge currencies in a united Cyprus.

In his (much larger) palace on the southern side, Mr Christofias offers just one reason for the failure of EU policies to promote free movement and trade. The "so-called isolation" of the north is "a result of the invasion and the occupation by the Turkish army of this part of the island of the Republic of Cyprus," he says.

The largely unseen presence of that huge Turkish garrison is enough to dampen the optimism of many Greek-Cypriots. Mr Talat is widely dismissed as an incidental figure, with mainland generals seen as the real powers in the north.

That points to another lesson Cyprus offers about EU enlargement. The EU’s structure—which pretends that all member states, of whatever size, are equally important—does not fit well with the hardheaded business of relations with big, powerful neighbours. In the EU’s calculation of how hard to push Cyprus and Turkey respectively, Cyprus has EU membership, as well as the law, on its side, whereas Turkey can muster big strategic arguments. For a union that swears by the rule of law but has big strategic ambitions, that is an unacknowledged dilemma.

http://www.economist.com/specialreports ... d=11436638

[Kikapu]

COMMENTARY: A balm in Cyprus?
Viola Herms Drath
Wednesday, June 4, 2008

It remains to be seen whether the election results in the Republic of Cyprus will create the political climate and pragmatic conditions leading to the elusive reunification of the divided island.

It is becoming clear, however, that the choice of Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias, former popular president of the House of Representatives since 2001 and leader of the communist AKEL party with ties to Moscow, firmly signals that the Greek Cypriot people voted for change.

Promising swift action on the hapless reunification front, President Christofias seized the initiative for prompt meetings with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat to establish a negotiation process at the level of six working groups and seven technical committees dealing with crucial aspects of the Cyprus problem. Mindful of the failure of the United Nations Comprehensive Settlement Plan, better known as the Annan Plan - accepted by Turkish Cypriots but turned down in a reunification referendum by Greek Cypriots four years ago - Greek Cypriots sought different venues to reflect the constructive spirit of the new administration.

There has been progress. During a meeting at the end of May, the two leaders issued a joint statement on the thorny issue of governance. Their affirmation of a commitment to a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, defined by relevant Security Council resolutions, offers a door to a "partnership with a federal government with a single international personality, as well as a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State of equal status."

Considering the insistence on a federation by the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus and the preference of a confederation by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, this signals a compromise, roughly based on the Swiss canton model, an arrangement that could well signal a first breakthrough. Furthermore, political power-sharing has emerged via a process of parallel consulting of core and soft issues to allow progress in one segment without prejudice to others.

Considering the complexity of the reunification issue, the concept of "constructive parallelism" - meaning a two-track process rendering core issues and humanitarian issues codependent - promises results.

The tasks of the two commissions will be reviewed this month when the two leaders meet again at the U.N.-controlled Nicosia airport.

Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Talat have known and sparred with each other for a long time. Both are regarded as skilled and compatible politicians. Yet being well-aware that friendships between politicians, such as President Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, do not necessarily translate into political success, diplomats are hedging their bets. Nevertheless, chances for the solution of the latest of many efforts to decipher the Cyprus conundrum after 34 years of uneasy separation have, unexpectedly, improved.

"The Berlin Wall has not collapsed," announced the Greek Cypriot minister of foreign affairs at the recent opening of the sixth crossing point at Ledra Street in the divided capital of Nicosia. He left no doubt that he would like to walk the street without checkpoints.

Commenting on a "new chapter," the TRNC's Mehmet Talat is well-aware that reunification will be "very difficult" and "not so easy for Mr. Christofias either." While President Christofias chooses to "be patient" and "not predict anything," his team speaks of "different dynamics" and expectations that the internal situation in Turkey will temper its dogmatic positions if it really contemplates a viable solution.

In Ankara, fighting for accession to the European Union, it is unforgotten that the Turkish Cypriot community had approved the U.N.'s reunification referendum in April 2004. Also unforgotten is the fact the European Union did not hesitate to reward the Greek Republic of Cyprus by granting membership for their rejection of that referendum a week later.

Though widely praised by the international community for its cooperation with the U.N. and the EU, the TRNC remained virtually empty-handed. The EU's award of 259 million euros for economic development had its caveats. Earmarked to be project-related, it turned out those projects were not approved by a powerful officialdom that cavalierly refused to recognize their urgency.

Turkey and the TRNC retaliated by changing the island's demographics. Based on the increased flow of Anatolian "settlers" during the last years and their extraordinary birthrates, the island's Turkish minority has increased from 180,000 to 265,000, facing 660,000 Greek Cypriots - numbers bound to affect the political impact of the Turkish Cypriot community and change the minority equation concerning governance, territory, property and other crucial issues - such as the status of 40,000 Turkish occupation troops in Northern Cyprus.

Rising numbers of reunification skeptics maintain that the only solution may be the status quo of the two communities' coexistence on the Mediterranean island settled, conquered, overrun, visited and occupied from the Stone Age to 1960.

However, there is new thinking in Cyprus and the island has another chance. To succeed, compromises on key issues will be as much a necessity as political good will.

Viola Herms Drath, is a member of the executive committee of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... in-cyprus/

[Kifeas]

COMMENTARY: A balm in Cyprus?
Viola Herms Drath
Wednesday, June 4, 2008

It remains to be seen whether the election results in the Republic of Cyprus will create the political climate and pragmatic conditions leading to the elusive reunification of the divided island.

It is becoming clear, however, that the choice of Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias, former popular president of the House of Representatives since 2001 and leader of the communist AKEL party with ties to Moscow, firmly signals that the Greek Cypriot people voted for change.

Promising swift action on the hapless reunification front, President Christofias seized the initiative for prompt meetings with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat to establish a negotiation process at the level of six working groups and seven technical committees dealing with crucial aspects of the Cyprus problem. Mindful of the failure of the United Nations Comprehensive Settlement Plan, better known as the Annan Plan - accepted by Turkish Cypriots but turned down in a reunification referendum by Greek Cypriots four years ago - Greek Cypriots sought different venues to reflect the constructive spirit of the new administration.

There has been progress. During a meeting at the end of May, the two leaders issued a joint statement on the thorny issue of governance. Their affirmation of a commitment to a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, defined by relevant Security Council resolutions, offers a door to a "partnership with a federal government with a single international personality, as well as a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State of equal status."

Considering the insistence on a federation by the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus and the preference of a confederation by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, this signals a compromise, roughly based on the Swiss canton model, an arrangement that could well signal a first breakthrough. Furthermore, political power-sharing has emerged via a process of parallel consulting of core and soft issues to allow progress in one segment without prejudice to others.

Considering the complexity of the reunification issue, the concept of "constructive parallelism" - meaning a two-track process rendering core issues and humanitarian issues codependent - promises results.

The tasks of the two commissions will be reviewed this month when the two leaders meet again at the U.N.-controlled Nicosia airport.

Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Talat have known and sparred with each other for a long time. Both are regarded as skilled and compatible politicians. Yet being well-aware that friendships between politicians, such as President Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, do not necessarily translate into political success, diplomats are hedging their bets. Nevertheless, chances for the solution of the latest of many efforts to decipher the Cyprus conundrum after 34 years of uneasy separation have, unexpectedly, improved.

"The Berlin Wall has not collapsed," announced the Greek Cypriot minister of foreign affairs at the recent opening of the sixth crossing point at Ledra Street in the divided capital of Nicosia. He left no doubt that he would like to walk the street without checkpoints.

Commenting on a "new chapter," the TRNC's Mehmet Talat is well-aware that reunification will be "very difficult" and "not so easy for Mr. Christofias either." While President Christofias chooses to "be patient" and "not predict anything," his team speaks of "different dynamics" and expectations that the internal situation in Turkey will temper its dogmatic positions if it really contemplates a viable solution.

In Ankara, fighting for accession to the European Union, it is unforgotten that the Turkish Cypriot community had approved the U.N.'s reunification referendum in April 2004. Also unforgotten is the fact the European Union did not hesitate to reward the Greek Republic of Cyprus by granting membership for their rejection of that referendum a week later.

Though widely praised by the international community for its cooperation with the U.N. and the EU, the TRNC remained virtually empty-handed. The EU's award of 259 million euros for economic development had its caveats. Earmarked to be project-related, it turned out those projects were not approved by a powerful officialdom that cavalierly refused to recognize their urgency.

Turkey and the TRNC retaliated by changing the island's demographics. Based on the increased flow of Anatolian "settlers" during the last years and their extraordinary birthrates, the island's Turkish minority has increased from 180,000 to 265,000, facing 660,000 Greek Cypriots - numbers bound to affect the political impact of the Turkish Cypriot community and change the minority equation concerning governance, territory, property and other crucial issues - such as the status of 40,000 Turkish occupation troops in Northern Cyprus.

Rising numbers of reunification skeptics maintain that the only solution may be the status quo of the two communities' coexistence on the Mediterranean island settled, conquered, overrun, visited and occupied from the Stone Age to 1960.

However, there is new thinking in Cyprus and the island has another chance. To succeed, compromises on key issues will be as much a necessity as political good will.

Viola Herms Drath, is a member of the executive committee of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... in-cyprus/

I hate reading articles by ignorant journalists that have little grasp of the parameters and dynamics of a situation, and end up making arbitrary and wild assumptions and claims! Since when it has become a principle of justice that an illegality may possibly produce a legitimate claim? Since when the mere illegal importation of people by an occupational authority into another country's territory, may constitute a basis on which to make up legitimate claims on the basis of such peoples so-called rights? Who said to this woman that such ideas have a ground of validity on this day and age?

[Nikitas]

Kifeas,

America was built on the importation of people, the displacement and extermination of the natives and the internment of the survivors in "Reservations". This "expert" has no choice but to see things in this way.

[Nikitas]

what exactly is an "extraordinary birth rate"?

[Kikapu]

what exactly is an "extraordinary birth rate"?

A "bun in the oven" at all times.!!

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: June 10, 2008

Turkish Cypriots say Cyprus-Britain agreement "a blow" to peace process


NICOSIA,: A Turkish Cypriot official said Tuesday that an agreement between Cyprus and Britain to improve bilateral relations dealt a serious blow to a new peace drive on the ethnically divided island.

Hasan Ercakica, spokesman for Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, said the June 5 memorandum of understanding implied Greek Cypriot control over the breakaway Turkish Cypriot community, and thus "went beyond the limit."

"Unless the consequences of this development are amended, we will be faced with them as important problems in the settlement of the Cyprus problem," Ercakica said in a written statement.

Cyprus was split into a Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south in 1974 when Turkey invaded after an Athens-backed coup aimed to unite the island with Greece. New top-level peace talks are due to start this summer.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed the agreement in London to strengthen often strained relations between the Mediterranean island and its former colonial ruler.

Christofias has been highly critical of Britain's policy on Cyprus because of a perceived pro-Turkish bias. As Parliament speaker in 2005, Christofias accused London of being Cyprus' "bad demon."

But Christofias hailed this month's agreement as a new era and a turning point in Cyprus' relationship with Britain.

The agreement commits Cyprus and Britain to work together on reunification.

Efforts to reunify Cyprus had remained stalled since 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N.-backed plan in a referendum. Turkish Cypriots endorsed it.

Christofias and Talat agreed in March to start full-fledged negotiations after a three-month preparation period.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/ ... cation.php

[Kikapu]

Published: June 10 2008 03:00

Ankara criticised over Cyprus talks

By James Blitz in London

Hopes that Cyprus may be heading towards a peace deal that unites the Greek and Turkish communities are being undermined by "reactionary" statements from the Turkish military in Ankara, according to the Cypriot president.

In recent months, leaders of the island's Greek and Turkish communities have made moves to restart reunification talks, striving to end decades of division.

But in an interview with the FT, Demetris Christofias, president of Cyprus and leader of the island's Greek community, said progress on a peace deal was hitting a "major obstacle".

He says Ankara has reverted to talking about the island's Greek and Turkish communities as two distinct "peoples" - implying that each is entitled to retain a considerable degree of sovereignty. Speaking on a recent visit to London, Mr Christofias said he and his Turkish counterparts on the island recognised that the only basis for a peace deal was to unite Greek and Turkish Cypriots in a single republic that recognised the rights of the two "communities".

However, a statement in April by Turkey's National Council, which talked about the Turkish and Greek Cypriots as distinct "peoples", went against this. "If you talk about 'peoples' with a right of self-determination then your philosophy is to divide the island. I am frustrated by this. We need to stick to the philosophy of two communities," he said.

Ankara's move had been driven by "a reactionary Turkish military" that retains 36,000 troops on the island and opposes reunification.

But Mr Christofias remained optimistic that a final peace deal could soon be achieved.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc670528-3688 ... fd2ac.html

[Kikapu]

Monday, 9 June 2008 16:22 UK


Cyprus unity hopes rekindled

By Kirsty Hughes
Writer on European affairs, Nicosia


There are fresh hopes in Cyprus that the divided island may be edging towards a long-awaited settlement, with the leaders on both sides preparing for peace talks.

But if they don't meet, or peace talks fail, Cyprus will risk facing a Kosovo-type situation, with the unrecognised Turkish-controlled north likely to push for international recognition.

The catalyst for the new upbeat mood was the election in February of moderate Demetris Christofias - leader of the Communist Party Akel - to replace hardliner Tassos Papadopoulos as President of the Republic of Cyprus.

Across the UN-patrolled buffer zone - or Green Line - the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, has had good relations with Mr Christofias for decades.

"We are trying to make the start of fully-fledged negotiations possible," says Mr Talat. Turkey is the only country to recognise the breakaway north.

For a UN diplomat on the island, it is the chemistry between Mr Talat and Mr Christofias that holds the whole thing together. But a European diplomat warns: "There is still a mountain to climb."

Mr Talat's chief negotiator Ozdil Nami is optimistic. "Apart from the friendship of the leaders, it is clear that for the first time ever, they share a common vision and are determined to have a partnership," he says.

His Greek Cypriot counterpart, George Iacovou - an aide to Mr Christofias - calls himself "cautiously optimistic" that there will be full-scale talks, but is less sure if they can start by late June, the target set by both leaders.

Joint initiative

At a landmark meeting in March both sides agreed to open the Ledra Street crossing in central Nicosia. It was closed off by UN peacekeeping troops after inter-communal clashes in 1964 - even before the Turkish invasion in 1974 resulted in a complete partition of the island.
The two leaders have given a new push to the negotiations

Working groups were launched to start tackling the tricky issues that have blocked a settlement for decades.

In late May, the two leaders met again and set out their common goal of a united federal republic of Cyprus, under a bizonal, bicommunal system, where the smaller Turkish Cypriot community would be guaranteed political equality with the Greek Cypriots.

Nicos Anastasiades, leader of the centre-right Disy party, supports Mr Christofias' pro-reunification line and says "the whole climate has changed" since the Greek Cypriots' rejection of a UN peace plan in 2004.

Some issues are easier now than four years ago. With Cyprus in the EU and already using the euro, negotiating over currencies or monetary policy is redundant.

But many thorny issues remain. The Greek Cypriots want a strong federation, the Turkish Cypriots a looser one.

Tougher still will be agreeing a new security regime, and ending the presence of 35,000 Turkish troops in the north - with agreement likely only in the final hours of talks.

Abandoned homes

Property, and the right of return of refugees on both sides, is also highly sensitive - and discussions on issues of restitution or compensation have ground to a halt. New maps will also have to redraw the border between Greek and Turkish Cypriot "zones" - another area of little progress.

The two sides remain far apart over the so-called "settlers" from the Turkish mainland - people who the Greek Cypriots say settled in the north illegally after 1974.

Mr Christofias says he has offered to accept 50,000 "settlers" as Cypriot citizens. "I expected this position would be respected and greeted, but unfortunately it was not," he said recently.

A European diplomat here warned that if the two sides delay too long "they risk losing momentum and international interest".

Some say hardliners from Mr Papadopoulos' party - Diko - in the governing coalition are putting pressure on Mr Christofias.

Quiet diplomacy

The UN is playing a low-key role as a behind-the-scenes facilitator. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expected to name a new UN special envoy soon, which could help talks shift up a gear.

For now, the European Union's role is limited to technical advice, ensuring any peace deal fits with EU rules.

Turkey's role in facilitating or blocking an agreement is another wild card worrying the Greek Cypriots.

Mr Talat insists: "Turkey is decisively supporting a deal". But he agrees that Turkey's current political crisis, with the courts threatening to shut the governing Islamist-rooted AKP party, might cause a real problem.

Yet Mr Talat says a full peace deal could be reached by the end of the year. "The future will be very, very difficult if we miss this chance," he says.

Mr Christofias agrees: "Time is passing and it becomes more difficult to handle the situation on the ground."

As one European diplomat put it: "If these two can't do it, no-one can."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7444113.stm

[Kikapu]

The Associated PressPublished: June 16, 2008


EU to relax restrictions on Turkish Cyprus


LUXEMBOURG: EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to ease the economic isolation of the Turkish-Cypriot controlled part of Cyprus, in a move designed to bolster efforts to reunify the island.

The measures "aim at enhancing trade and economic integration on the island," the EU ministers said in a statement, adding that they would help "support" both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders in finding a negotiated settlement to end the 34-year division of the island.

The European Union said the rules would lift duties on agricultural products and ease restrictions on companies that carry out services across the so-called Green Line that divides the two communities.

The value limit of personal goods carried by visitors crossing the line also will be raised from €135, or $209, to €260 to encourage economic integration.

The EU has in the past also urged the opening of more crossing points along the Green Line to bolster trust between the two communities.

Measures to ease the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community have been held up for years by Greek Cypriot officials, who fear that opening trade ties with the northern part of the island would mean a de facto recognition of the breakaway state.

Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot republic, and only the Greek Cypriot part of the island has joined the European Union, in 2004.

Cyprus was split into a Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south in 1974, when Turkey invaded after an Athens-backed coup aimed to annex the island to Greece.

New peace talks are due to start this summer.

Efforts to reunify Cyprus had remained stalled since 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN-backed plan in a referendum. Turkish Cypriots endorsed the blueprint. Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed in March to start full-fledged negotiations after a three-month preparation period.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/16/ ... cyprus.php