Troublesome neighbours

摘要

The first hurdle to be surmounted on Turkey's journey to Europe may well be Cyprus. Greece and Turkey have growled at each other over Cyprus ever since the Turkish army invaded the tiny island in 1974 to pre-empt a coup aimed at enosis (union) with Greece. That led to a division of the island, which replaced inter-communal strife with physical separation. For the Turkish speakers in the northern part of the island, acknowledged only by Turkey, it also meant economic stagnation. Only some nifty semantics in Brussels last December managed to stop the Greek-speaking part of the Mediterranean island (which at that point had been a member of the EU for all of six months) from using its veto to spoil Turkey's European ambitions. In the end, Mr Erdogan agreed to recognise Greek-speaking Cyprus as a member of the EU without recognising the state itself. All the same, Turkey will shortly have to revise its 1963 association agreement with the community, in which it recognised the existing members at the time, to extend that recognition to all the new members that have joined since, including Cyprus.