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Europe
New Leader Seeks Unity In Cyprus
2008-02-26
The decades-long division of Cyprus could be resolved by the end of the year, the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots said Monday, a day after Greek Cypriots elected a new president. President-elect Dimitris Christofias had campaigned on a pledge to act quickly to restart long-stalled talks to reunify the island. "I believe that it won't be a surprise if we solve the problem by the end of 2008," Mehmet Ali Talat told reporters.

Decades of diplomatic efforts to heal the rift on the strategic island have failed.
Which leads me to believe nothing's gonna happen this year, either.
Reunification would remove one of the obstacles to Turkey's efforts to join the EU and could ease strong objections to Kosovo's new independence among Greek Cypriots, who fear it would act as a precedent for north Cyprus. The island's division is also a major source of tension between NATO allies Turkey and Greece.

Cyprus has been divided into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south since 1974, when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup attempting to unite the island with Greece. Talks have been stalled since Greek Cypriots rejected a UN reunification plan in 2004. Turkish Cypriots approved the blueprint.

Christofias' election Sunday, after the ouster of hardline Tassos Papadopoulos in a surprise first-round election result last week, has sparked hope for eventual healing of the division.
Posted by:Fred

#1  Greeks and Turks living on the same island? What they need is a great, big wall to keep them from each other's throats.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2008-02-26 15:16  

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