Embracing Cyprus: The Path to Unity in the New Europe

By: Pauline Green and Ray Collins

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Synopsis: When Archbiship Makarios was toppled as President of Cyprus in a 1974 coup and Turkish forces invaded the island, few saw Cyprus as part of the incipient drive to create a new Europe. Since then the torment of the divided island has deepened, with Greek and Turkish Cypriot politicians increasingly entrenched in their discord, while the Cyprus problem has loomed ever larger as a source of instability in an already volatile region. Yet, as Pauline Green reveals here, behind the rhetoric of the politicians there has evolved a growing view among Greek and Turkish Cypriots that the solution to Cyprus's problems lies within the gift of Europe. She argues that the intercommunal stand-off can only be diffused and ultimately resolved by firmly embedding Cyprus within Europe. In a Cyprus that is part of the European Union, the petty nationalisms that fuel the conflict would be rendered irrelevant. The author's analysis, which also links into Turkey's application for EU membership, will interest not only those concerned with the future of Cyprus, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean but also with the fate of the European Union itself.Given the EU's position on Cyprus and the sensitivites surrounding Turkey's entry into the European club, this is clearly a book of major importance and topicality.