Shadowed northern lights

摘要

Even as the partition line through Cy-prus becomes a little bit more porous, the two parts of the island feel, politically at least, like different planets. That sense cast a shadow over the victory in the parliamentary election on February 20th of Mehmet Ali Talat, prime minister of the Turkish-controlled north and a keen advocate of reunification. On his side of the line, a recent visit by a small group of American business executives on a junket backed by the American government was seen as a small but welcome move by the United States to keep its promise to ease the isolation of the Turk-ish-Cypriots. The 160,000 or so residents of northern Cyprus will not, in practice, make much difference to corporate America; yet the visit outraged the Greek-Cypri-ots in the south who run the island's internationally recognised government. George Lillikas, the finance minister, even floated the idea of a boycott of American goods-before being countermanded by his cooler-headed colleagues.