The division of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish sectors has long been a nonsense, made the more absurd by the accession of Greek Cyprus to the European Union while the Turks, who had overwhelmingly accepted the island's reunion in 2004 and then saw the Greek community reject it, were left out in the cold. Cyprus should return to what it was before 1974, a union of two communities who by and large lived in peace and amity.
It is too easy to rehearse the issues that led to the Turkish invasion and Cyprus' partition. Turkish Cypriots may now rue the long-term intransigence of their then President Rauf Denktash, who repeatedly blocked serious reunification negotiations, even when it was finally evident that the majority of the island's Turks favored them.
Now each side of the divided island has a leader who is committed to making unity talks work. But as Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat made clear yesterday when they announced Sept. 3 as the start of formal negotiations, between accepting the principles of unity and negotiating the fine detail is a wide gap that will require skilled handling by both sides. There is, for instance, a number of issues relating to property that over the last 34 years has been expropriated by either side. How are the owners to be compensated, especially when land has been developed by those who took it over? There is also the attitude of Ankara to be taken into account. Though successive Turkish governments have supported Turkish Cypriots, financially and militarily, since the administration of Turgut Özal in 1980, the Turks have privately accepted the high cost to Turkey, in diplomatic as much as financial terms of sustaining a statelet unrecognized by the international community. But Turkish national pride dictates that reunification must in no way humiliate the Turkish-Cypriot community, nor yet the Anatolian farmers and workers who were encouraged to move to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus"" to repopulate lands deserted by Greeks or by Turkish Cypriots who preferred to make their lives abroad, particularly in the UK.
The path of the talks is unlikely to be smooth but given the goodwill of both community leaders, they now face a strong chance of ultimate success. It is also significant that, unlike in 2004 when the UN and EU became involved, this time there are to be no outside intermediaries. Even the mainland Turks, whose protective mandate led them to move troops into the island in 1974 to protect the Turkish Cypriot community from an Athens-engineered coup designed to unite Cyprus with Greece, will play no role now.
The process of compromise and horse-trading that begins in September will mean winners and losers on both sides. There will doubtless be protests. However, in the final analysis individual losses, while regrettable, will not truly weigh in the balance when compared with the final gain, which will be a Cyprus from which the tragic and damaging divisions of over three decades have at last been removed.
