Despite a long history of peace, however, it seems to be neglected that there is still a part of European territory living under embargo and complete isolation from the rest of the world. Indeed, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) since its foundation in 1983 has not been recognized by any part of the international community and has been living under the protective wing of Turkey.

This is an outcome of a longstanding dispute on the island of Cyprus. The conflict began mainly because of some violent attempts to annex the island to Greece in 1950s and again later on in 1960s and ‘70s. In the early ‘50s, the enosis ambition was led by the underground terrorist organization Eoka, which bathed the whole island in blood. Amids increasing violence and skirmishes, on July 15, 1974, a military junta staged a coup d’état with the clear intention to declare the birth of the Hellenic Republic of Cyprus. Since the situation reached a dangerous peak of tension, according to its guarantor status (which gives the right to intervene jointly or unilaterally), Turkey entered the scene to protect Turkish Cypriots, to prevent the annexation of the island to Greece and to stop the bloodshed. From that moment, Cyprus hasn’t experienced any other fight and, even after the proclamation of the KKTC, Turkish Cypriots have worked to leave the door open to a bi-zonal and bi-communal federal settlement for the island.

However, despite negotiations having been in progress since 1968, all the efforts to solve the island’s problems have failed. Greek Cypriots have disagreed to any kind of a solution, playing the international card and denying rights and international identity to the Turkish Cypriots. Based on this approach, therefore, each plan proposed by various UN secretary-generals (in 1985, 1991 through 1993 and 2004) were rejected even though they were welcomed by the Turkish side. Nevertheless, the most traumatic of these occurred in 2004, when Kofi Annan produced a plan for relations on the island based on referendum. The result clearly showed that Turkish Cypriots were willing to reach a comprehensive settlement: 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots said “yes,” while 74 percent of Greek Cypriots rejected it. Nowadays, several obstacles are blocking the negotiation process, among which the most serious is the EU’s lack of political vision. Unfortunately, after the 2004 referendum the Greek side of the country was accepted by the EU as a full member. This has to be considered a very critical and historic mistake by the EU, the outcome of which today is a very complicated and painful situation, at least for one of the two sides.

Turkey continues to support solution of 2004 Annan Plan

In this regard, it must be stressed that Turkey has continued to support the solution offered by the 2004 Annan Plan, meeting the intransigence of the Greek axis inside the EU. The disappointment of the Turkish side is not regrettable considering that the issue also seriously affects Turkey’s EU accession process, as Cyprus exercises the right of veto to block any negotiation dialogue with Ankara. Moreover, while the KKTC has never been represented inside the European institutional framework, on July 1, 2012, Greek Cyprus was appointed to cover the EU Presidency, further undermining the process.

Indeed, while the EU insists that the whole island is part of EU territory, the acquis communautaire has not been implemented in the northern half. And paradoxically, it was the same EU that imposed a de facto embargo on what it considers part of its territory. It follows that today the KKTC is totally isolated from the rest of the international community and can only connect to the world through Turkey, which acts as a buffer zone. Therefore, the internal situation of northern Cyprus is quite peculiar: a sort of upper-class developing country (the national income is around $40,000 per year) with specific comparative advantages, basically related to education and tourism. However, due to the contingency of the political situation, there is little enthusiasm to properly manage its domestic potential, as well as a serious lack of long-term political vision. Weakened but not exhausted by historical events, Turkish Cypriots still show a strong will to pursue a comprehensive settlement as a definitive solution to the issue.

Again, just before the new EU Presidency election, the president of the KKTC, Mr. Derviş Eroğlu, offered to reach a compromise with his Greek Cypriot counterpart, gaining the support of the UN, yet all the proposals in the end failed. Considering that the current representative of Greek Cyprus, Mr. Dimitris Christofias, will not run for the next round of presidential elections, scheduled for February 2013, for the time being the negotiation process is experiencing a new point of deadlock.

In the face of this multifaceted problem, it seems that the time has come for the international community to play its role in giving the necessary support to each aspect of the situation and to find a way to untangle the issue. A good starting point might be to take into deep consideration the reality of Cyprus: a land with two souls, two religions, two different cultures and two states. At a time when all of Europe is facing dividing challenges, with plans for new autonomies on the table, is it really appropriate to try and unify two states physically so close but institutionally so far apart? Within the solution to this anathema may lie the key to any realistic settlement.