turkey, cyprus and the eu
Cyprus joined the EU in May 2004. Originally it was hoped that the Cyprus problem (the division of Cyprus after the Turkish invasion in 1974) would be resolved before Cyprus became part of the EU, but, despite the efforts of the UN, that did not happen. Turkey has now proposed an Action Plan to solve this problem and integrate the northern part of Cyprus into the EU. There are some useful links on Euractiv.
I find this topic very interesting as I was involved in a presentation on it in a European Business class I took at grad school. Although everyone seems optimistic about Turkey joining the member states, it seems as though every time they make progress there is a major setback. To start, Turkey now has 70 million people and is expected to surpass Germany as the largest population of the EU states(assumming they join) by the year 2020. This worries a majority of the council because of Turkey’s extreme views on human rights (or lack thereof). They still have the death penalty for adultery and allow “honor killings” or justified homicide if one is dishonored. Additionally, their per capita income is only 4500 USD, which concerns member states worried about a massive migration of labor after their entrance. Finally, it appears that they will not be included until they recognize the “Turkish Cyprus” as independent, which will take much convincing considering the 1974 war is still fresh in the minds of most older officials, including the loss of many families. Its my opinion that a prospective entrance date of 2008 for Turkey is overly optimistic.
I agree that the Cyprus problem will be quite hard to reconcile. Having been there within the last few years, I can say that it’s quite jarring to see a “wall” (think Berlin during the Cold War) and having to cross through a virtual no-man’s-land in Nicosia to get to the Green Line to cross to the Greek side, only to be turned away and threatened with arrest.
One would think that the world would have learned by now, but apparently there are certain divisions that run very deep indeed.