With the Palestinian question, the Kurdish question and various other issues in the region, one longstanding middle-east issue seems to of been ignored, despite recent topical relevance, - The Cyprus Question.
A summary follows:
In 1960 Cyprus was granted independance from the UK, the Island sitting in the Eastern Mediterranean south of Turkey, contains a majority Greek Cypriot population with a Turkish Cypriot minority (not necessarily ethic groupings, more religious groupings). With a long history of intercommunal violence guarantees were made upon independance to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority. Sporadic intercommunal violence contiuned after independance and there was a substansial amount of discrimination against the Turkish Cypriots.
In 1974 an attempted coup d’etat, backed by the mainland Greek miltary junta, against then president Archbishop Makarios, attempted to unite Cyprus with Greece (enosis). However, Turkey (one of the three guarantors of Cyprus’s independance, the othertwo being the UK and Greece) invaded the Northern 30% of the island stopping the coup in it’s tracks. Once in control of the northern part of the island, despite a UN resolution, the Turkish army failed to leave and expelled most of the Greek Cypriots under it’s control (by this time most of the Turkish Cypriots had fled or been forced to the now Turkish controlled portion). In 1983 the Turkish controlled area proclaimed itslef the “Turkish Republic of Nortern Cyprus”, a state only recognized by Turkey.
With the additional influx of Turkish settlers from mainland Turkey, this situation still persists (despite numerous attempts to resolve the situation) on the island and the Turkish army still has a large prescence there. Recently however the southern part of the island applied to join the EU and it was recognized that if the southern part joined by itself this would effectively end any chance of reunion. This has led to an accelration in peace talks but a solution still seems quite along way away (thanks to the intransigence of the two presidents, Clerides and Denktash, who were both prominent figures in and before the 1974 invasion).
Because of the fact that it is not internationally recognized the TRNC is in virtual economic collapse and there is a movement for reunion there (something that never existed before) but there is alot of antipathy towards the Greek Cypriots (who themselves are almost completely in favour of a reunion). A federal state solution has been offered, but this has been flatly turned down by the Greeks.
This is of particular interest to me as I am heading out to the TRNC on Saturday. My own opinion is that full reunion will and perhaps should not happen and the only solution is a federal union between the two states which will preserve the status quo.
What are peoples opinions on the Cyprus question and possible solutions?